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The Okayama District Court on Wednesday sentenced a 50-year-old man to 6 1/2 years in prison for abducting and confining an 11-year-old girl in his home for five days last year.
Prosecutors had sought a jail term of 10 years.
The court heard that Takeshi Fujiwara kidnapped Sakura Moriyama while she was on her way home from school in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, in July 2014, Fuji TV reported. Police found the girl five days later in Fujiwara's home, about eight kilometers from where she was last seen.
Fujiwara, who is a freelance illustrator, told police he followed the girl home in his silver car on many occasions in May and early June of 2014. Sakura's mother had spotted Fujiwara's car and contacted police. However, she was only able to provide four digits from his number plate. At that time, she bought her daughter a cell phone with a GPS tracking system.
Fujiwara told police he approached Sakura a few hundred meters from her home on Monday July 14, threatened her with a box cutter knife and ordered her to get in his car. He told her he would kill her if she didn't obey him, police said. Along the way, Fujiwara said he threw the girl's cell phone away.
Acting on information from a local resident about Fujiwara's car, police visited his home the following Saturday night at around 10:20 p.m. They knocked on the door but there was no answer, so they broke a window and entered. They found Fujiwara and Sakura in a room with no windows. Sakura was lying on a futon in her pajamas watching TV. They asked the girl if she was Sakura Moriyama and she said yes.
The house had been renovated in December 2013 and some windows were removed. The room where Sakura was found had also been soundproofed, leading police to suspect that Fujiwara may have been planning the crime for some time.
Fujiwara told police that whenever he went out to buy groceries and other items, he locked Sakura in the room. Police also said that Fujiwara had used a fake number plate on his Toyota Vitz.
Fujiwara's lawyer told the court that his client liked Sakura and wanted to be with her. He said his client had since expressed remorse at what he had done.
Sakura's parents said she had been suffering bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder since the incident.
© Japan Today
34 Comments
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descendent
Hard to believe he didn't do anything beyond kidnapping and confining, especially given his motives.
Also, why is the girl's name being made public? They won't even publish names of convicted killers if they are under 18, but they freely publish the name of this girl?
Plinytheelder
That sort of premeditated crime warrants a stay in a high-security psychiatric prison, not 6 1/2 years. Crimes against children and women are not being taken seriously.
Alistair Carnell
Fujiwara, who is a freelance illustrator
Let me guess, lolicon manga ?
mtuffizi
life sentence without parole
khulifi
Very short .... this man need to be locked for the rest of his life.
presto345
Even 10 years is far too lenient a sentence. I am shocked by this 'justice'.
PTownsend
6 1/2 years for a sick crime like this? Everyone associated with the Okayama District Court should feel ashamed. People can't mess with children and be let off easily!
nath
If she's traumatised for life, he should get life. Let him out when she feels safe.
DaDude
He got 6.5 years and she was sentenced with a potential lifetime of mental anguish. The punishment does not fit the crime.
Sioux Chef
This is beyond ridiculous. He'll be out in 6 1/2 short years to again abduct a child at knife-point but probably worse next time.
YGTBSM
HongoTAFEinmate
Although I hate to say it, the girl was lucky. Wasn't there are case up in Niigata (?) where some nutjob lifted an elementary school girl and kept her as his "companion" for something like 10 years?
Moreover, the reporting in this article confuses me.
Sakura’s mother had spotted Fujiwara’s car and contacted police. However, she was only able to provide four digits from his number plate.
Why didn't this information lead to an earlier arrest? Four digits and the color of the vehicle is a fair bit of info in Japan if you consider that the major components of a number plate are "4 digits and a hiragana indicator." Given all the different classes of vehicle (denoted by the index number), how many silver cars were there in the vicinity of Okayama at the time with the same four digits?
Finally, 6.5 years is rather short. On the other hand, however, as somebody who comes across as a "convicted kiddy fiddler," 6.5 years in the general prison population might be a very hard stretch, honor among thieves and all that.
TheGodfather
Nothing further to add!! :-(
Disillusioned
Only six and a half years for kidnapping and confining an under age girl? Seriously? That's absolutely absurd! He would do more time in the pen if he stole a car! How does Japan expect to stop this kind of lunacy if they don't make the penalties to befit the crime? Or, maybe they don't consider this a bad crime. One shudders to think what would have happened to the girl if the cops didn't find her. Do they have 'victim impact statements' in Japanese courts? This kid must be extremely traumatised, as are her parents. This loon had remodelled his house to include a soundproof room for confining her! Flashbacks to The Silence of the Lambs anyone? This loon will be out just after the Olympics! Unbelievable!
TheGodfather
Cue outrage from manga apologists denying him Takeshi Fujiwara his artistic freedom!!! :-(
Douglas Macarthy
He didn t kill her,,,,crazy guy,but no RIP so a good end
Wc626
@Alistair C- you're prob right. And yet people will post that manga featuring images of children engaged in sex acts is "harmless." Pathetic.
nakanoguy01
six years for kidnapping an adult. at least double that for kidnapping teenagers, and treble that for anyone kidnapping young children. or better yet, chemical castration.
TheGodfather
Sakura Moriyama, 11-year-old girl.
Case closed!!
nath
How was she hurt by it?
TheGodfather
Case closed!!
Moderator
That ends this line of discussion.
shallots
What is the logic behind the light treatment of crimes against children in Japan?
fishy
the guy used a fake license plate.
TheGodfather
It is called INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE... :-(
nath
Did you see the word after 'institutional'? What (s)he is saying is different from what you said. You are saying that the child abuse is institutionalized. The 'expert' says that the tolerance of it is. They aren't the same thing. Beyond this point, I would say that the expert is incorrect, as there isn't tolerance - those who sexually exploit children are arrested and charged, so there is no tolerance.
azukaya
I think it could be a cultural matter, but I cant see as serious as others something like this notice. Im not saying that he shouldnt not be punished, specially because it were against her parents consent an she were threatened with a cutter. But after these maybe terrible days, she can continue her life ahead.
nath
What? He kidnapped the girl. There is nothing cultural about that. It's serious no matter what culture.
sado001
He's lucky he just got 6 1/2 years. It must have been life imprisonment, the only thing that saved him was that he hasn't touched the girl yet. The police just got in time I think, on a sound-proof room, the girl in the futon and wearing a pajama, if the police got there a day or maybe hours late, he could had raped the girl. Kidnapping a MINOR alone should be more than 6 years!!
But the thing I hate most is that they arrest this people who kidnap/rape young girls, but in their society child porn in manga, AV videos are rampant. It's like they are saying, its OK to fantasize about you raping a child, just don't do it..
lostrune2
She'll get used to it.
Maybe they already distributed flyers with the girl's photo and name while asking help looking for her. In which case, the cat is already out of the bag, so there's no reason to withhold the name.
nath
Are you trying to say she got PTSD from reading child porn manga? Did you get that from some other news source? It's not in any of the articles I've seen.
TheGodfather
Keep digging!! :-)
nath
Do you have anything to show that it isn't?
And where are your protests to the depiction of murder in movies and comics?
descendent
@Strangerland
It's not clear if you're disagreeing with Wc626's assertion or if you're simply asking for citations, but if the latter, note that internet discussion boards are a forum to offer up and discuss personal opinions.
Offering your own opinions from time to time would be welcome, rather than simply repeating calls to cite research.
However, if you just need citations for your junior high school paper footnote, try out a new tool called "Google".
nath
A little of both. I don't believe the assertion to be correct, but instead of saying 'you're wrong', I gave him the opportunity to first show he was right.
And they are also a forum to point out where said opinions differ from fact, and to question said opinions.
Maybe you should check into what you are talking about, before making statements that don't hold up to fact. Click on my username to see my posts, and you'll see that I do indeed offer my own opinions.
I'm not the one who made the claim. When I am, I offer sources, or am prepared to do so when requested.