19-year-old university student missing in Shimane since Oct 26

she looks like a small child on the photo, hope she is fine and unharmed, pease no more henious crimes

curse be upon the one whoever is responsible if some crime has been committed.

Poor kid.

LoveUSA, my classmates looked like that, I always felt kinda weir in Japanese uni. let's hope she's out there with the boyfriend or so

dang she does look young!

She looks like my sister! My thoughts and prayers are with her family as well as my hope for Hiraoka-san to be returned soon.

Whats up with the missings and killings lately??

People go "missing" all the time. They usually turn up safe. Hopefully, she is and will.

Her parents must be beside themselves...

I hope she is alright. I worked once in Hamada and it really doesn't seem like the kind of place where a horrible crime could happen, but I guess you can never tell until it happens.

Let's hope nothing of the sort has happened.

I dont understand why in Japan so many people go missing.

two weeks later we are hearing about this? when did it hit the japanese news. don`t the japanese police watch law and order? the first twenty-four hours are crucial.

the first twenty-four hours are crucial.

Yes they are, but sillygirl, if the police responded to every case of someone not turning up for a few hours, they would not have time to do any other police work, or even sleep, and still not get finished.

So, some advice. If any one you love goes missing, by all means contact the police, and then get everyone you can to get on the trail or even contact a P.I. Everybody says their little girl would never arrive late. How are the police supposed to know who is telling the truth, because you know most are full of it. So don't sit on your hands waiting for them to do something.

two weeks later we are hearing about this?

I think you'll find there are 9 days between Oct 26 and Nov 3, not 14, and October 26 was when she was last seen, not when she was reported missing. For all we know her parents only reported her missing yesterday.

According to the TV they (ht eparents and police) allowed the standard week for her to turn up to pass, before officially declaring that there is now a serious possibility that a crime might have occurred.

There are many possibilities, such as that she ran away but did not want her parents to know about it, so made a clean break.

I certainly hope she's found safe and sound, just kicking back at an onsen with a bunch of friends or something similar.

And I'd like to echo what others have said -- what is with the delay between the date she was last seen and now having this story in the news? Even if her parents didn't report her missing (and I imagine they did), her employer, her university instructors, or her friends must have noticed that she wasn't around. A week is a ridiculously long period of time to wait before declaring someone officially missing. Twenty-four hours should be the minimum -- less if it's a case of a child going missing. In all this intervening time, who knows what might have happened to her? If it's foul play, there's a good chance that any hard evidence has already been degraded. And if it's not foul play but rather a case of a 19 year old wanting to skip ahead to her 20th birthday and independence without telling anyone, then it's a gross misuse of police resources and an inexcusable emotional drain on her family and loved ones, and she needs to be brought to task for it. I sincerely hope it's the latter, not the former.

North-Korea is renewing its stock of abductees