Police in Osaka have arrested a 33-year-old man on suspicion of robbing a 41-year-old man at knifepoint as he walked home last month.
According to police, the incident occurred in Kita Ward at around 12 a.m. on April 18, Sankei Shimbun reported. Police said the suspect, Taishi Yamada, a company employee, is accused of coming up behind the suspect and grabbing him from behind. Yamada brandished a knife at the man and said if he made a sound, he would be killed. He then took the man to a nearby parking lot and stole his wallet containing 28,000 yen and his cash card. He taped the victim’s mouth and bound his arms and legs before fleeing.
Police said Yamada was identified through nearby street surveillance camera footage. He was also seen on surveillance camera footage taken at a nearby convenience store where he used the victim’s ATM card.
Police said Yamada has denied the charge and quoted him as saying “I don’t remember.”
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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snowymountainhell
Police quoted him as saying “I don’t remember.”
Did he “remember” the PIN?
Mocheake
I bet he won't forget a prison term.
Hiro
The only positive thing about the country horrible broken system is that even if every culprit use the 'i don't remember thing' card in Japan, the police won't care if you really have real amnesia or not. When they want a confession out of you and they know it is you, then you can lie all you want, it isn't gonna help. These police has all the time in the world to slowly break and get the confession out of you. Lawyers might teach criminals to say nothing and or use the i don't remember trick, but if the police of japan intend to go after you, no amount of tricks can prevent it. There is a upside why we have a 99% conviction rate.
obladi
I also wondered why he needed to rob someone. Probably the police will be looking for gambling debts, etc. Definitely sounds like he could have used some lessons.
wowyz
If they fall for their systemic coddle protocol again, then we know what we are dealing with.
Mirchy
kaimycahl
He should have said I don't remember, what was the ATM pin number they accused me of using?
Zaphod
A real random street robbery --- I think that is the first time I read about that in this country ever.
finally rich
Its very rare to see these robberies where the assailant flees with quite an amount of cash. Exchanging years and years of your life being yelled at in a japanese prison for 28.000yen is quite silly. How long would you have to work to get 3man-en? 2, 3 days in the most unskilled average baito?
baroque1888
It is a shock that this kind of thing could ever occur anywhere in Japan. Whether one is in Tokyo, Osaka, all the way up North in Wakkanai, Hokkaido or down South in Naha, Okinawa, my understanding is that Japan is extremely safe and safety regarding street crime is top notch!?!? It is understood that Japan is one of the safest countries in the world along with other neighboring countries such as South Korea and Taiwan. An ABSOLUTE SHOCK!!
Employed or not, crime is never justified, but out of curiosity, if the suspect has a job, why does he need to rob someone????????????
Goodlucktoyou
He said he didn’t remember, so we should presume he is innocent until convicted.