Man gets 16 years in prison for Osaka road rage murder in 2018

What a joke. A terrible joke. Chased the kid for a minute then killed him. Prosecution seeks 18 years and the sentence is 16? The car was used as a weapon so if someone ran and chased another person with an axe for a minute then killed them, they would get 16 years? Go figure.

This scum "got angry" because he was passed by a motorcycle. I hate people like him on the road.

So one guy gets just 16 years for taking 1 life, and the guy gets just 9 years for each life he took?

Japanese justice is a JOKE!

If I got upset every time a motorcycle or scooter got in front of me at a red light in Japan, I'd never be calm. It's a fact of life driving a car there.

I can pass the under-powered scooters as soon as the light turns green. (I never understand why they always insist on getting to the front, when everybody just passes them right away.)

But, I accept the reality that motorcycles are going to be able to negotiate traffic faster than cars. No use getting upset by such a basic fact, which holds true in the US and probably most other countries, as well.

There should not be any mercy for premeditated murder.

I interpret “doomed” which was “hai, owari はい、終わり” as “okay, that takes care of you.”

The sad truth is that many humans cannot control their emotions of anger and rage. When the bean-sized amygdala housed in their brain is excited the resulting behavior often leads to tragedy for both victim and perpetrator. Unfortunately, at this point in time, prison is, inevitably, the sole social sanction available.

The Japanese criminal justice system is as impotent as those who designed it

A Japanese told me a strange story which took place about 10 years ago. His account went roughly as follows:

I took my family for a short trip using the expressway. As I was driving along, a car pulled up behind me flashing his headlights and honking his horn at me. Confused, I pulled over to the side of the road to see what he wanted. A man got out with an aluminum baseball bat and began shouting at me incoherently. The man then proceeded to bash the front of my car with it as my family watched in shock. I didn't react to the man as he was obviously unbalanced. After a few minutes, the man got back in his car and drove off. We waited for a few minutes to make sure he was far enough ahead so as not to attack us again. About 20 minutes later we saw that the same man with his baseball bat in hand had pulled another car over and was doing the exact same thing again to another driver.

Be extremely careful when you pull over to confront anybody.

Better than the usual bell-jar sentences here when it comes to murder, but the sentence still seems to rely more on poetics and whimsy than the facts. "His voice sounded light" and "he made light of a life" are the reasons for the judge's "hard" sentence, not Simply the fact that this scumbag of a human being INTENTIONALLY sped up and rammed a kid on a bike, also saying "Doomed" while he did it. If his voice had sounded more remorseful and his excuses less lame, would he have gotten a lighter sentence? Probably. Such is the way it goes here. TIJ. I'm glad he at least got the 16, but it should be 25 minimum.

Seems possible he learnt physics from video games, where bumping vehicles, is part of racing games

Although his intention was momentary and not strong

You take away his licence. And charge with dangerous driving, but it was not murder, he didn't run over the guy with intent.

The Judge summing up is not good, like the Ghosn case we are left puzzled.

@quercetum

The question being sounds like he said "hai owari" at time a guy in full protective gear falls off a motorcycle, not at the time a fellow human is pronounced dead.

In such a crowded country and infinite traffic jams I usually allow scooters plenty of space.

if some drivers feel angry and resort to intimidating tactics as a punishment to other drivers then they should be banned from driving for life .

During the hearings, video footage of Nakamura's dashboard camera revealed his recorded voice saying "doomed" after ramming into Takata.

Doomed? I had to do some searching to find what was actually said in Japanese (only to find out that quercetum had already posted it). The guy said はい、終わり (hai, owari - https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190126-00000006-spnannex-soci).

Where did anyone ever come up with 'doomed' as a translation of that?

The 'hai' in this case, is like 'ok', basically an acknowledgement of something having happened. And 'owari' is a conjugation of the verb 'finish'. I'd be more likely to interpret this in English as 'Ok, well that's done'. However, it could potentially be referring to himself, as in 'Ok, well I'm done'. I assume this is what they were going for with the translation of 'doomed'.

I'd want to hear the audio myself to make a proper personal judgement as to which it was. But if I were a gambling man, and had to speculate, I'd say that 'well, that's done' seems more in line with what I would expect from a guy who had just purposefully chased a man down and rammed him off his motorcycle. It's possible that at the moment he hit the guy, he realized his own life as he knew it was probably be over, but in my experience people who are that enraged need to calm down a bit before they realize how royally they've screwed things up.

@strangerland

If he was referring to himself I would have thought that he would have been more likely to say 'mo oshimai da'. 'Hai, owari' is more 'job done'.

If he was referring to himself I would have thought that he would have been more likely to say 'mo oshimai da'. 'Hai, owari' is more 'job done'.

I agree that would be more likely. But it cannot be discounted that someone would say that about themselves. Kind of like how the term 'well that's that' could refer to either direction in English.

This is a premeditated act- causing grievous injury leading to death. the accused need to be treated for his temper issues also. He could possibly do any harm to another inmate in rage,if goes untreated.

Summed up by the extraordinary ;"what is the purpose of your act", who even talks like that, and is leading to Judicial behave we can't comprehend.

In this case we need to know the time line, and whether there was any harsh braking from the motorcycle, just before ?

Who he said "hai, owari" to or that he even said it at all should be the least of their concerns. If they have the recording they have enough proof of his intentions. Why does the court feel the need to not even give the paltry 18 years sought by the prosecutors?

I agree with the victim's sister at the end of this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQDz9R8bmgY

How do all the judges achieve that mannequin look? Weird man

He even had a dashboard camera! Forget losing your job - you've lost your freedom. You're lucky you didn't lose your life (to the rope).

I can pass the under-powered scooters as soon as the light turns green. (I never understand why they always insist on getting to the front, when everybody just passes them right away.)

Garypen, 50cc scooters are allowed and in many locations supposed to stop at the front because it is the most visible place. It prevents scooters being in cars blind spots when making a right turn.