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All right, welcome back to another episode of the Psychopedia podcast. I am your co-host, Tank Sinatra, here with my co-host... Investigators Slater. How you doing? Great. Fantastic. Listen, we got a doozy for you today, apparently. I don't know anything about this case. As you know, if you listen to the podcast, I'm kind of just here for comic relief. And listen, to the people who are saying we're not the only true crime comedy podcast out there, yes, we are. No, we aren't. Stop. Stop.
We aren't. I don't know what to tell you. We're the only one doing it. Listen, you're a newbie to the true crime family, so it's possible. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. It's possible that you just don't realize that others exist. Yeah, I don't know what I don't know. Well, I'm telling you, we're not the only one. Stop saying that. Where I come from, we're the only true crime comedy podcast out there doing it.
We're definitely my favorite. We're my favorite as well. That I'm in total agreement with. Okay. But it's not a true statement to say that we're the only ones. It just isn't. Listen, what's true anymore? Well, I can tell you what's not true.
Well, again, we're my favorite. We're the only true crime comedy podcast called Psychopedia on the charts right now. I want to thank everyone for listening. The response has been fantastic. I love everybody so much more than I did before. And I loved everybody a lot before. But when you love me back, oh boy, it just gets me going. So listen, there's been a lot of reviews, which as we've mentioned in the past,
really kind of feel like when you wave to somebody and they wave back. And when they don't wave back, that's a horrific feeling and nobody should ever have to feel that. But on Apple, listen, this guy, Kevin P. Bisson, who I kept reading in my head as Kevin B. Pisson, that was funny. That was a joke. Writes, converting. Converting, okay. Converting.
Just like Tank, I was never a true crime podcast fan. I always listened to comedy podcasts. Same here. But this one, holy crap, got me sucked in so bad. Everything from putting severed chicken heads on a priest's penis to toy box dungeons. Investigators Slater is awesome and comes up with incredible stories. Tank Sinatra cracks me up and does not at all sound like a munchkin. Can't wait till next week, guys. There was so much in there that I loved.
Truly. And if you're wondering what the whole, you know, the priest with the chicken head on his penis thing is, that's from an episode called Meet Me at the Slaughterhouse. I think that's our first episode. And Toy Box Dungeon is Toy Box Killer, which is our first and only so far two-parter because it was such a doozy.
What episode did they say felt like a fever dream? The Sharon Lopatka Feed Me, Fuck Me, Kill Me episode. Yeah, I work with someone and she said that after listening to that episode, she felt like she was in a fever dream. Yeah, an hour long panic attack. Right. Yeah. That means we nailed it. Yeah, we did nail it. But that's good. That's what we want. So without further ado, you know what happens here.
We do true crime, we do comedy, we do pop quizzes. I fail them, investigator Slater.
revels in it. Yeah, I do a little bit. You like it. Are you starting to like take it as a challenge to... When you get it right, I just take a mental note to do better next time. You shouldn't be getting them right. I should be tripping you up more. I'm guessing wild shots in the dark every single time. I guess statistically you will get it right sometimes then. Sometimes. And it's fun when I get some of them right. I guess it's
good for your ego. I'm sorry. I should be supporting you getting it right. No, I don't need any ego boost from getting pop quiz questions right on a subject I know nothing about, but it does feel good. It feels like I got you when I get a pop quiz question right. But if you're playing along and you're just like me and you never know the answer, we're one in the same. We're two peas in a pod. So without further ado, adieu.
Why don't you drag us through this case? Let me begin first by saying that this case was requested. It was requested by two people. It was requested by a colleague that I work with at the law firm, and it was requested by a listener who wrote on Instagram, who responded to one of our posts when we were asking for suggestions.
So two people suggested this case. So you have them to thank for this terrible, terrible case I'm about to bring to you. We take no responsibility. None. Were you familiar with the case before? I was familiar with this case before. It's a well-known case in the true crime community. It is. I hope to cover it a little bit differently and to bring some different information to the table, but it's horrendous, Tank. I mean, it is reality altering and I'm not being dramatic here.
You will not be the same person after we finish doing this case together. Like House on Haunted Hill? Yes. You will go into this case one person and you will exit a different person. And that's true for everybody listening. So please, that's as heavy a disclaimer as I can possibly provide. Your DNA will be altered by this case. Holy shit. This case is going to kill me. It might. Then you're going to do a case on this case. Yes. On this podcast. On you. Yeah.
All right, so let's hear what you have to say. Let's see how bad it really is. All right, let's go. Buckle up. On the evening of November 25th, 1988, a 17-year-old high school student from Misato, Saitama, Japan was riding her bike home from her part-time job at a plastic molding factory when she was suddenly knocked down off her bike by a group of boys her age. She was completely shocked and alarmed when the group of kids who knocked her off her bike then began to slowly surround her.
I feel like, I don't know if you can relate to that terror tank being a 250-pound male. Hey, I wasn't always 250 pounds. But as a 4'11 female, if you have a group of guys descending on you, straight up panic. Yeah, it's got to feel bad. Especially as an adult. I mean, you would think you would have grown a little bit taller to try and compensate for that.
I'm going to just move on from that terrible insult. Sorry. Yeah, I got bigger because I was scared, you know? I didn't have a choice, so I had to just grow. So these boys are circling in on this girl who they knocked off her bike. And much to the girl's relief, a boy her own age that she knew had coincidentally been nearby and suddenly intervened when he saw what was happening. For him. The boy instructed the gang to back off the girl before offering to safely walk her home the rest of the way.
So she's pedaling her bicycle while conversing with her friend, and the young girl's feeling relieved, right? She keeps moving towards her home without hesitation with this guy. Little did she realize, however, that this boy's timely presence at the scene had been no coincidence. Oh, no. In fact, it was part of a premeditated ruse intended to seamlessly lure her into a lethal situation.
Like a lamb to a slaughterhouse, she was blissfully unaware of what was about to occur and that she would soon be living through a human being's worst nightmare. Jesus Christ, you're a good writer.
Because in the following weeks, this young girl, whose name was Junko Furuta, was subjected to some of the most heinous acts of cruelty to have ever been recorded in Japanese history. The following weeks? Yes. She was kept in captivity for 44 days. No. Junko was subjected to an indescribable amount of brutal physical abuse and ongoing sexual assault.
and was made to be the target of the most twisted and perverse form of entertainment imaginable on behalf of her teenage captors. By all the guys? Yep. So they went and said, hey, we're going to scare this girl, then you're going to come save her, but you're actually with us. That's correct. That's like, did you ever see the movie Kingdom? No. With Jamie Foxx? No.
First of all, prayers up to Jamie Foxx. I hope he's okay because he's like, he had a stroke and he's been in the hospital for three weeks. Oh, you know how I don't follow celebrity news at all? I had no idea. Do you know I just found out that there's a boy Kardashian? Yeah, Rob. I have no clue. I don't follow celebrity news, but that's terrible about Jamie Foxx. In your defense, Rob Kardashian does keep a pretty low profile. Okay.
Yeah, Kingdom, they... It's the very beginning of the movie, so I'm not giving anything away. There's like an embassy or something overseas. They're all playing baseball. It's all American, military, whatever.
and somebody walks up and shoots everybody. And then after the EMTs and the fire trucks and the first responders and everybody gets there, then a bomb goes off and kills everybody. So they did that small act of violence to get people to it and feel like it was over, and then they attacked them more. So this is a very similar scenario. I don't like that at all. That was a movie. This is real. This was very real.
The crime that we are discussing tonight has been described as the worst case of juvenile delinquency in post-war Japan and also involves a powerful Japanese organized crime syndicate known as the Yakuza. Oh, boy. And the worst part of this case, aside from the unrelenting amount of torture, rape, and eventual homicide, is that there were more than 100 people who knew about what was happening to an innocent girl and chose to do nothing. So...
Why? You'll find out.
Before I infect your brains with the disturbing facts of this outrageous case, let's first lay the foundation and get to know the young girl behind this horrific tragedy. Just to touch on something, you said post-war Japan, pre-war Japan, where juveniles doing all kinds of crazy shit, or was it a lawless landscape before that? I can't comment on the history of Japan accurately, so I won't comment. Wish you did some research, but... Oh, burned. Burned.
No, because you did some research. Oh, I can't. I refuse. I like to go in completely ignorant. So this was 1988, which I guess that indicates that at this point there was some, because Japan is known to be a very lawful, law abiding, obedient country.
Right? Yes. Like respectful, considerate, their subways are clean and they let people get on and off. Like I've seen videos. I don't know. I haven't seen like all the videos of Japan, but I'm sure there's bad people there. But for the most part, they're considered to be pretty decent people. Still. Yeah. Horrendous what happened here. Whether crime was up or down at that time, this case is unmatched.
Junko Furuta was born on January 18th, 1971 in the city of Masato, located in the southeast corner of the Saitama Prefecture, which is about 20 kilometers from downtown Tokyo. By the way, a prefecture is a district under the government. Like a province? Yes. Okay. Or a territory, right. The Edogawa River runs along the eastern border of the city. The Naka River runs along the western border. And the Oba River runs through the central part of the city. Okay.
I like to know these things. Sorry if that bores you. Yeah, thanks for the river breakdown. Geography lesson in there. Thanks for the tributary distributions. Junko lived with her parents, her older brother and her younger brother, and was an incredibly well-rounded, well-liked girl. She was known for her beauty, intelligence, and ambition at Yashio Minami High School and had a good girl reputation within her community.
Junko abstained from drinking, smoking, or taking drugs and was quite popular with her fellow students in spite of never partaking. She also had an excellent attendance record, which, by the way, guess who had a perfect fucking attendance record in high school? Not me. Who? But my other me, my twin sister. Really? She had a perfect attendance record all four years of high school. Nerd. Nerd. I can't.
I couldn't, there was no chance, 0%. I remember hearing about that when I was a kid and being like, I've already ruined that. Oh, she lived for that perfect attendance record. I gave her a standing ovation, me and only me. I didn't even know that was a thing. When she got the award, yeah. Until I was like in 10th or 11th grade. We were very different twins. Yeah.
During Junko's senior year of high school, she worked part-time, as I mentioned earlier, at a plastic molding factory to save up enough money for a graduation trip she was planning to take at the end of the school year. She was so driven and so bright that she already had a job lined up at an electronics retailer for when she graduated. But her ultimate dream was to become an idol singer. Pop quiz. Just to keep it light for now because it's going to get very, very heavy. Okay. What is an idol?
A, an average person who becomes a competitor on a televised singing competition. B, famous teenagers in Japanese pop culture that create fan fantasy with their cute and innocent image. C, performers who are inspired by the skirts, petticoats, corsets, and other garments of Victorian-era England.
What? Those are my choices? Yes. What is an idol singer? Yep. Is it a competitor? Is it a Japanese pop culture famous teenager? Or is it a performer inspired by Victorian era England? A performer inspired by Victorian era England? False. That is a lolita. Oh, that's what I got that mixed up in my head. Idolita. A competitor? No. Okay.
Cause you three American idol. Right. Off there. So it's the other one, which I don't remember anyway. Famous teenagers in Japanese pop culture that create fan fantasy with their cute and innocent image. And that was Junko's dream to become an idol. They sell like an image of youth combined with musical talent. Oh, nice. Yeah. So again, this is just like a introductory pop quiz to keep it light. Has nothing to do with anything. No, it doesn't. Much like the river. Uh,
Okay, doing great on this episode so far. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big ROAS man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend.
My friend's still laughing at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com slash results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com slash results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be.
At this point, we know that Junko was highly regarded. She was pretty. She was motivated to do well academically. She had a beautiful future ahead of her. It's not a shock to find out that even boys who had completely different goals, ambitions, and interests were absolutely captivated by Junko.
And this included a boy named Hiroshi Miyano, who was a steaming hot pile of dog shit. Whoa. Hiroshi had it bad for Junko. But since girls tend to not be interested in egotistical, maniacal, psychopathic jerk-offs, the feeling was not mutual. Yeah. Hiroshi had an infamous reputation for being a bully, and he had a history of misconduct going back to elementary school, such as stealing and damaging property and getting into trouble with authorities. Yeah.
Hiroshi was also known for being a cocky loudmouth around town who would openly brag about his alleged connection with the Yakuza. And because of this low-level gang affiliation, he had an insanely inflated self-image and felt entitled to have whatever the fuck he wanted whenever the fuck he wanted it. This moron saw himself as Tony Soprano, but in reality, he was just an asshole teenage thug, like a petulant child who
with the EQ of a goldfish, right? Tony Sashimoto. Okay, yes. You don't like this kid at all. No. Yeah, you hate him. He's horrendous. Yeah. Wait, what did you say? The EQ of a goldfish? Yeah. EQ, for those of you who don't know, is emotional quotient to emotional intelligence. And you know what? That's even being too fair because I had a beta fish who I really connected with. That says a lot about you.
I would run my finger along his tank, and he would follow the trail of my finger. He thought it was food. No, we were connecting. You were connecting. Thank you very much. How old were you when this happened? This happened last week. Oh my God. He died because he's a betta fish. So when Junko turned Hiroshi down after he asked her out, it was the ultimate insult, and he absolutely could not and would not tolerate it.
No one ever dared to reject Hiroshi Miyano, especially after learning about his big bad Yakuza affiliation. Yeah. So let's talk about the big bad Yakuza for a moment. All right. So we have some context. Known informally as the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza are a 400-year-old criminal syndicate that carries out everything from human trafficking to real estate to disaster response.
They remain one of the most feared and respected criminal organizations in the world and are known for their strict code of conduct and fierce loyalty to their bosses. They value obedience above all else, and they control their organization through strict ordinance operating under the code of Jinji, which means like justice and duty.
But contrary to popular belief, the Yakuza is not one single crime organization. It's consisted of many different smaller syndicate groups. There's really like three larger ones that kind of run it. They band together and they form the larger Yakuza. Pop quiz. What is a requirement for someone to join the Yamaguchi Gumi, which is the largest Yakuza syndicate group?
A, to cut off their left pinky to prove their loyalty. Wow. B, to take a written exam. Uh-huh. C, to abduct and harm a non-Yakuza citizen.
Take a written exam. Yes. Yeah. Wow. Well done. Because they're going to get into some shit after they get in. They don't need to, you know, be causing problems before they're in. Right. There's an actual 12-page exam to join the Yamaguchi Gumi. Like the SATs for the mob. Yeah, basically. Wow. Interesting. Interesting, right? So the Yakuza are heavily involved in drug trading, specifically meth, as well as human and sex trafficking. Okay.
And disaster relief. And disaster relief. Randomly. Fucking greedy bastards. They can't just let that to somebody who's not involved in human trafficking. Junko rejected Hiroshi Miyano, right, who's a young member of the Yakuza. And in doing that, she put into play a series of catastrophic events that
because his fragile ego simply could not handle the rejection. And I've read some interesting and alarming information on this topic and how so much of what happens to poor Junko is related to male fragility and the fact that she simply said no to a boy who couldn't handle it. Yeah, that's not okay. Because after Junko had the gall to reject him, which of course was her right to do, he was humiliated. And from that moment on, Hiroshi Miyano was out for her blood.
Can we talk about male fragility for a second? We can. Just for a split second. I posted a video a couple of weeks or months ago. I don't remember when exactly it was. But this whole incel thing where people are freaking out because they can't get laid, I have a message to men out there who can't get laid.
sometimes you can't get laid. Fucking deal with it, dude. Like not everybody you want to have sex with is going to have sex with you. It's just kind of like, as a matter of fact, most of the people, most of the women you want to have sex with are not going to want to have sex with you. If you're lucky enough to find one who does good for you, but you're not owed anything. I don't know where they got the idea that like they're owed sex.
from women. Absolutely. I honestly, I really, I'm not even kidding. Like, I'm just, I don't know where, I haven't seen anything that says that women owe men sex. I've only seen them get mad that women are not giving sex. Like,
Like, what rule book are you reading where, like, you're owed something? I don't know. Nothing. I don't understand it. It doesn't make any sense to me. So, yeah, join the club. You can't get laid. Sorry. Too bad. Well, Hiroshi took it in a very violent direction. Yeah. He devised this plan with three of his cronies in which they would knock Junko off her bike
close ranks on her, and then he would swoop in as her hero to save her and to walk her home. Oh, he was the hero? He was the hero. Oh, so she may have known something was up beforehand. No. Maybe. She absolutely did not. I don't mean beforehand. I mean, like, as she was walking with him, she may have been like, ah, this is... Well, so they were walking, right? And she thinks she's walking towards her home, but little did she know, she would never see her home again.
Because rather than walking her safely home like he promised, Hiroshi instead led her to an abandoned warehouse that had been used as a Yakuza hideout. And once inside the warehouse, Hiroshi started the horror show by raping Junko not once, but twice. From there, Hiroshi forcibly took Junko to a nearby hotel and called three of his friends to brag about what he'd just done. These three friends were called Joe Agoura,
Shinji Minato and Yasushi Watanabe. Since shitbirds of a feather flock together, Joe instructed Hiroshi to keep Junko in captivity at the hotel long enough so that he and the rest of the group could come by and take turns sexually assaulting her. Oh, yeah, of course. Which was precisely their thing.
So this particular group of guys or boys had a history of gang raping young women who they would stalk, kidnap, rape, and release. That was their thing. Wow. Now Junko started out as being another one of their victims in this devastating lineup, but her situation had a drastically different ending.
So all the boys go to the hotel where each boy then proceeds to individually rape Junko before then collectively raping her at the same time. But unlike all of the other girls and women that they'd viciously done this to in the past, they did not release Junko after assaulting her. Instead, Junko was transported from the hotel to Shinji Minato's family's home located in the Ayase district of Adachi, Tokyo.
While driving to the house, Hiroshi informed Junko that he would kill her entire family via the Yakuza if she so much as attempted to escape.
Terrified for the safety of her parents and her two brothers and thinking that cooperating might secure an opportunity for her future release, Junko complied. Heartbreakingly, she was wrong in her assessment of the situation. As little did she know that regardless of whether or not she cooperated, she was never going to see her family again.
And speaking of her family, by this point, they were absolutely panic-stricken over Junko's unexplained disappearance. So it's now November 27th, 1988, almost 48 hours after her abduction, after she initially went missing. And Junko's parents notified the police that their daughter never came home from work two nights before. Junko's now arriving at Shinji Minato's family's home, and she's flanked by all of her assailants when she enters the family's home.
Pop quiz. Oh, God. When they arrived at Minato's family home, what happened? A, one of his brothers recognized the situation for what it was and offered to help Junko escape, but she was too afraid. B, Minato's father winked at 17-year-old Junko, foreshadowing the abuse that was about to come. C, Junko pretended to be Hiroshi's girlfriend and his family went along with the facade.
She pretended to be his girlfriend. Yes. I'm fucking doing good right now. You're slamming it. Do better. Okay? Do better. Because if the brother offered to rescue her and she refused, that would be absolutely terrible because she never wound up getting out. She was scared. If the father winked, I would go to Japan right now and fucking punch that guy in the face. And, you know, I guess his family knows that he asked her out maybe potentially. Yeah.
Or he was into her? No. I mean, so here's where I got you then. You got the answer right, but your reasoning is wrong. Yeah. There are theories that his family, his parents in particular, were part of the Yakuza. Oh, okay. So they knew what was about to happen and they allowed it to happen. Oh, so he basically did wink. That, or they were so afraid of the Yakuza that they sort of, you know, didn't want to recognize the situation for what it was. And hoped it turned out okay. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
So Junko was forced to pretend in front of Minato's family that she was Minato's girlfriend, which has me baffled because I just, I can't see how anybody, even people who are afraid of like the Yakuza or afraid of an outside force can look at a battered girl who was clearly just assaulted and just play along. Well, I was thinking about the transport. Like how did she get from point A to point B without somebody going, Hey,
What's happening here? Yeah, I mean, they rushed her into somebody's car and drove her from the hotel to his house. So in this house is when her 44-day captivity, her hell on earth, began.
For the next 44 days inside that home, Junko was subjected to the most inconceivable acts of torture imaginable and likely some forms that you couldn't even imagine. Yeah. She suffered unspeakable, excruciating pain. So brace yourself for what comes next and please listen with caution.
First, the psychological torture began with the boys forcing Junko to call her parents to notify them that she was safe and that she'd willingly run away with some friends. Oh my God. In fact, over the course of her captivity, she was forced to make that call three times.
Each time, she was forced to instruct her family to call off any police search and to let her be as she was safe, happy, and where she wanted to be. Wow. Can you imagine having to make that call? No. Unfortunately, given the fact that Junko had never lied to her parents before and that she was such a good kid and so close to graduation, they believed her and they called off the search.
Yeah, they were probably just like, all right, she's doing one last thing before she graduates. A little crazy rebellious teen thing. Absolutely. It's been estimated that Junko was raped between 400 and 500 times in that house during her captivity by up to 100 different men.
That's not good. In the beginning of December, Junko actually managed to get her hands on a phone and called the police while her captors were asleep. Really? But one of the boys woke up and took the phone away from her before she could get any of the words out of her mouth.
The police actually called back, but Hiroshi indicated to the dispatcher that there was a mistake. Everything was fine. Nobody intended to call the police. So nothing happened, and the authorities never followed up again. So I learned in Japan that they have three separate emergency numbers. They have 110, 119, and 118. They have a police number, a fire rescue number, and a Coast Guard rescue number.
Each service is supposed to deploy help if a call is received, even if no one speaks on the other end of the line. Even back then? Even back then. They shit the bed on this. So the boys were outraged that Junko had attempted to call the police and they sought to make her suffer for it. As punishment, they devised some shockingly cruel and unusual forms of punishment.
Trigger warning again. I mean, some people may even want to jump ahead in the episode because this is horrific. First, the boys stopped feeding Junko. Then they savagely beat her on repeat with their fists, feet, and heavy objects. Junko was forced to remove all of her clothing and to lie on her stomach on the ground while the boys all took turns violently jumping up and down on her back.
While completely naked, Junko was forced to masturbate in front of the captors in between being violently raped vaginally, anally, and orally. Oh, my God. She was subjected to extreme humiliation and psychological torture as well. The boys forced her to eat live cockroaches while they laughed and watched like spectators at a performance.
Junko was urinated and defecated on and then forced to drink the boys' urine and eat their feces as well as her own. She was also forced to drink all of the boys' semen. Oh my God, what the fuck? Junko's entire body was burned with lit cigarettes while the boys melted hot candle wax onto her eyelids and genitals. Her left nipple was cut off with a pair of pliers.
In addition to being raped repeatedly by all of her captors, plus 100 of their visitors, there was also a young girl who was invited over to see, quote, the imprisoned woman. Like she's a fucking circus act. And this young girl proceeded to doodle on Junko's battered face.
Yeah, I don't know. How many fucked up people can you find that each one was willing to do this? I don't know. I mean, maybe they didn't, maybe the 57th guy didn't know that there had been 56 people there before him. He thought he was the only one. That doesn't make it any better. I just don't, I don't know. No. These animals also inserted a variety of foreign and painful objects into Junko's vagina, including scissors,
Glass bottles, an iron bar, grilling skewers, a light bulb that was intentionally crushed inside her, and fireworks which exploded inside of her anus. Oh my God, are you fucking kidding me? No. This all occurred during the first 11 days of her 44 days of hell on earth. Fireworks? Why? Why not? It's gruesome and horrendous, so these assholes did it.
Do you know, my mom used to tell us that we were not allowed to let the cats out on Halloween or the 4th of July or any holiday ever. They're never allowed out, cats, because they're weak. No, I'm just kidding. She would say somebody will grab it and stick a firecracker up its butt. Wow. And we believed her for a very long time. Was she telling the truth? Maybe that's a thing that people do, sickos. She said a couple of things that were not completely true based on fear. And then as I got older, I was like,
me and my sisters used to laugh. We'd be like, can you imagine, first of all, catching a cat?
Catch it, first of all, catch it And then, without getting your arms Absolutely ripped to shreds Get a firecracker Up the driest butthole you've ever seen How do you know it's a dry butthole? You've never seen a cat's butthole? Why would I have ever looked at a cat's Why do you know that it's not dry? Have you ever owned a cat? No All they do is stick their butthole in your face They come around They put their butt at you And then their tail goes up And then it's just butthole time
It looks dry. And then you lit it.
Right. And then it went off. Like the sequence of events that would have to happen in order for my mom's dark, twisted fantasy to come true. Let me ask you something. Yeah. Did you let the cats out? No, but we were like kids. Yeah. Well, maybe she did a good job instilling the fear of God in you. It wasn't until I was an adult where I was like, that seems really difficult to do that, to actually do it. Yeah. But if she said to you as a seven-year-old, be careful not to let the cats out, it wouldn't have done the trick.
Yeah, but all of a sudden, all I can think about is a firecracker up my cat's butthole for the rest of the day. And how dry the butthole is. But now you're telling me about this story and it's just, I can't, that is beyond bizarre and cruel to me. They were not treating her, obviously this goes without saying, they were not treating her like a human being. Absolutely not. They didn't see her as one.
Junko was suspended from the ceiling and used as a human punching bag while she just pleaded for them to kill her. But they ignored her pleas. In fact, they got off on them. Junko's beautiful face swelled up so much that she had a difficult time breathing through her nose, which by that point had formed huge blood clots, which further clogged her airways. Apparently, her nose, like the bottom part where your nostrils are...
was at the same level as the top of her cheekbones. That's how damaged her face was from the abuse. Understandably, Junko experienced significant internal bleeding and organ damage by this point and began to vomit and urinate blood. Her completely brutalized and now disfigured body began to completely break down and started rejecting food and water while emanating a foul smell from within.
She was fading in and out of consciousness, which angered the boys because they wanted her fully alert.
They wanted her engaged and they wanted her miserable. Yeah. Because her noticeable suffering is what got them off. Now, I'm not a psychologist, but in my research, it would seem to me that these boys were sexual sadists. And we've explored this topic before. It means that they experienced sexual arousal in response to Junko's extreme pain, suffering, and humiliation.
As time passed, Junko's torturers became increasingly more vicious and stringent, never showing any signs of mercy or signs of reprieve and constantly pushing the envelope further and harder. Because like true sexual sadists, they had to continuously escalate the level of torture in order to meet their insatiable sexual appetite. So the need for suffering and humiliation increased.
had to rev up. It had to amp up each time in order for them to get off. Just don't get it. I just don't understand why that would be appealing to somebody.
Because they're not well. Yeah, true. Junko was never regarded, as you said, as a human being. And her captors never showed any remorse or regret for their actions. So I would say, obviously, that each boy was neuroatypical, right? And that they showed, to me, clear signs of psychopathy. They displayed deficient emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioral controls, which resulted in persistent antisocial deviance and obviously criminal behavior.
So at this point, it's now just 16 days into the 44 days of torture. It's the month of December. Oh my gosh.
And one of the younger Yakuza boys who had been invited over to rape Junko decided that he was going to tell his parents what was going on. And amazingly, and I say amazingly because we have yet to meet anyone so far in this case who's done the right thing, they called the police. Good. So officers arrived at Monado's home. And of course, Monado's parents acted completely clueless about a supposed girl being held captive inside their home.
In fact, they even invited the police to come inside to take a look around. And once the police were invited inside, what happened next? Pop quiz. Oh, fuck. A, the parents immediately called a more senior Yakuza member to come by the house to either bribe or disappear the two cops.
B, the cops declined to come inside and they left the scene without conducting a search. Or C, the cops took turns with Junko as they were secret Yakuza members who infiltrated the police force. No. Oh, man. I'm going to guess that they took turns with Junko? No. Oh, thank fucking God. I mean, whatever. It's bad enough, but...
They declined to come in? Yep. Astoundingly, the police declined to come inside. They tipped their useless little hats and they thanked the useless couple for their time at the front door and then they walked their asses back to their police car. And the parents obviously know what's going on in the house. They have to hear the screaming and see the people coming in and out.
Absolutely. And did nothing. And did nothing. And again, this goes back to what we were saying earlier, right? There's a couple of theories. One, that they were Yakuza members themselves. Yeah. B, that they were afraid of the Yakuza. They knew their son's involvement. They knew the existence of the Yakuza. They knew this was somehow related to the Yakuza. Yeah. So they made themselves ignorant. You know what I mean? They pretended. Turned a blind eye. Yeah, that's crazy. These parents suck too. Disgusting. Yeah.
Junko was still alive at this point, by the way, when the police showed up. And according to investigators and medical examiners who examined the situation after the 44-day ordeal ended,
Her life could have been saved at this point if she'd been rescued that day. Yeah, but, I mean, you're never going to be okay. No, but she could have been rescued if the police had done their jobs and went inside and searched and found her. She very likely would have survived. What I'm saying is, after 16 days of that type of torture...
what kind of a life are you going to have? Oh, I mean, people recover and recuperate all the time from traumatic incidents. There are Holocaust survivors that went on to have children and families. You know what I mean? That's just one example. But, you know, human beings can be resilient. We can't even understand what she's going through. So for you and I, we can't process how you ever recover from it. But
You know what? Human beings are resilient and strong. Can overcome a lot. Yeah. You know what? She should have at least been given the chance. Of course. Obviously. I'm just playing devil's advocate. Like she was begging for them to kill her because she was in so much pain and trauma and that. I mean, she's young too. She was 16. 17. Yeah. Like baby, baby. In January of 1988, Junko was essentially gone. But for the fact that she somehow still had a pulse and
The boys were no longer interested in her sexually, and the good times that they were having torturing her began to wane. And it raised the question for them, what do we do with her now? On January 4th, in a final act of psychological torture, the boys challenged Junko to a game of Mahjong. You know what Mahjong is? It's a game. I don't know. It's a card game with like little tiles. Every Jewish mom in Brooklyn plays Mahjong. My mom played Mahjong. So it's a card game. It has Chinese roots.
They indicated to Junko that if she were to win this game of Mahjong, they'd set her free. But if she lost, then the boy she lost to would get to determine how to kill her.
And this is the only time in the case you were likely to smile for three seconds at most because Junko won. Wow. She won the card game and she stuck it to those motherfuckers. Really? Yeah. This smart, amazingly strong girl won at least one battle in this bloodbath. This unfair, unjustifiable, terrible war against her. She won one battle. And for some reason that makes me happy for a second.
She probably felt a little hope for the first time. Absolutely. And they lied to her. Spoiler, they lied to her. They did not hold up their end of the bargain, especially now that their formerly discussed fragile egos were collectively damaged after she beat them. Yeah. They were livid. So rather than setting her free, they covered her in gasoline and set her alight. Once the fire went out, which had predominantly burned her legs, this poor girl was still alive and
and she was subjected to further physical abuse. In complete shock and system overload, Junko's body began to violently convulse as she bled out and oozed pus from almost every orifice of her body. Grossed out, these bitch-ass boys covered their hands with plastic bags and continued to beat her. What the fuck? Like they're pounding chicken? Yeah. In an act of literal overkill.
What the fuck?
Please tell me we're getting close to the end and a resolution where these kids explode spontaneously from shame and guilt. I mean, if there was any type of justice and any type of God, then that would have happened. But sadly, while Junko lie there alone, bruised, battered, and broken, 17-year-old Junko Furuta finally died. Thank God.
When the boys returned and saw that she was gone, they placed her body into a large bag and wrapped tape all around it. Then they placed her wrapped body into a 55-gallon oil drum before filling it with concrete.
On January 5th at 8 p.m., they loaded the concrete-filled oil drum onto a truck and began to drive it to an inlet on the Pacific Ocean, located about 25 minutes away. Their plan was to dispose of the oil drum in that body of water. But then on the drive there, they noticed an empty development site and felt like that would be a sufficient place to dump Junko's body instead.
Junko's body remained inside that oil drum at that development site for two months. Then, on March 29th, 1988, Hiroshi and Minato were both arrested for the rape of a different 19-year-old woman that previous December. Oh.
And while the police were conducting a search of their homes, they discovered a few pairs of women's underwear. So while Hiroshi and Minato were in custody, you know, while this other rape was being investigated, the police decided to ask them a few more questions about a few other unsolved crimes that maybe they were connected to. She's obviously a missing person at this point. She is a missing person at this point.
There was an unsolved murder of a mother and her seven-year-old child that had taken place on November 16th in the Ayase District of Tokyo, which is where Minato's family home was located. So the police decided to ask the boys questions about that murder since proximity-wise, it was close. And that was a week before they attacked her. Right. And during the line of questioning into that murder of the mother and her child, what happened? Pop quiz.
Hmm. See?
Yes. Wow. Why? Why'd you guess that? I mean, you're right, but... How else would they have found her? Um, I mean, investigative work beyond what the 17-year-old is telling them. But she's in an oil drum on a development site in concrete. Yeah, but people are discovered. Remains are discovered all the time. What about when the construction workers went to the development site?
Just hypothetically. Listen, you got it right. Yeah. I'm sorry. I cannot accept that you got it right, clearly. Do better. Do better at the PQs. I feel so much shame right now.
So Monado, being the fucking idiot that he is, thought that he was being questioned about Junko's murder when they were questioning him about the murder of the mother and the child. Oh my God, really? Yep. He got all kinds of confused. Yeah, you kill that many people, you're going to get confused. Yep. Fucking piece of shit. That's right. So not only did he confess to Junko's murder, but he implicated all of his friends too.
And then he told the police exactly where they could find Junko's body. By the way, I like that you're calling them fucking idiots and bitch-ass boys and stuff like that. It's very contemporary. He's putting it lightly. No, but it's good. What else are you going to say? Right. These gentlemen, these young men, I think not. When police found the oil drum, the damage to the body crammed inside clearly extended beyond the natural decomposition process. Yeah. Junko's appearance was drastically altered from the brutality of the attacks.
Her face was so swollen that it was essentially unrecognizable. Her body was severely memed and showed signs of edema on her wrists and ankles, indicating severe malnutrition. Edema is like swelling caused by excess fluid accumulation. Obviously. Obviously. I thought you said she was memed. Okay, Dr. Tank. You said memed. I thought you said memed. What?
Adding insult to injury, though unsurprisingly, there had also been shards of glass found inside of Junko's anus. Oh, the light bulb. But it's what was found inside of her completely brutalized uterus that continues to haunt me. A baby? Because in spite of all the irreparable damage done to her reproductive organs, Junko was somehow pregnant. Oh my God.
The only way that they were able to identify Junko was by her fingerprints. On April 1st, 1988, Joe Ogura and Yasushi Watanabe were also arrested for the murder and sexual assault of Junko Furuta.
So how did the Japanese criminal justice system handle the four initial perpetrators, right? Hiroshi Miyano, Shinji Minato, Joe Ogura, and Yasushi Watanabe. Well, during the initial prosecution phase, the boys' names were concealed as they were regarded as juveniles during the time in which the crime was committed. However, the media could not accept their rights to anonymity, and they intentionally disclosed the names to the public.
Still, however, they were charged as juveniles. And this means that they were automatically protected by special provisions, as the Japanese legal system believes highly in the rehabilitation of juvenile criminals rather than handing out severe sentences. The main objective of the court in juvenile cases is to reintegrate the children into society. No. But to me, and to most of the world at the time of this case and currently,
The judiciary system missed the mark entirely. Yeah. All four defendants pleaded guilty to causing bodily injury leading to the death of Junko Furuta rather than murder because they were juveniles. And all the other stuff that they did. And all the other stuff they did. In July 1990, Hiroshi Miyano, the leader of the crime, who was 18 years old when Junko was killed...
was initially sentenced to 17 years in prison. But upon appeal, the Tokyo High Court gave him an additional three years, making his sentence 20 years instead of 17, which is actually the second longest sentence in Japan. And since a deranged zebra cannot change its fucked up stripes, following Hiroshi's release from prison in 2009,
He was arrested again in 2013 for fraud, but was let go due to a lack of evidence. And this is going to infuriate you. He has since changed his name, has become further involved in the Yakuza, which he continues to openly brag about, dresses in flashy clothing, and drives a BMW. Oh, wow. What a cool guy. Yeah. So all in all, he ain't doing too badly.
Yasushi Watanabe, who was originally given a three to four year sentence, received an upgraded sentence of five to seven years as he was 17 years old at the time of the murder. Shinji Minato, who was initially given a four to six year sentence, had his sentence increased to five to nine years by the judge on appeal. Minato was 16 at the time of the murder.
By the way, he was arrested again in 2019 for attempted murder after beating a man with a metal baton on a road. Yeah, listen, people do dumb things when they're young, obviously. Make mistakes. Your frontal lobe is not fully formed yet. Maybe you take a risk you don't need to and blah, blah, blah. But these people, these kids...
should be, I don't want to say anything too crazy, but executed. Nothing too crazy about that. Nothing too crazy. I mean, to exhibit that level of barbarianism and cruelty and disregard for someone's potential pain and suffering is,
You can't, listen, I'm the first person to say people make mistakes and then change drastically, sometimes over a short period of time, sometimes over a long period of time. But I've never heard of somebody who was that depraved turning out okay.
I think also what's so absolutely astounding in this case is that there were so many of them at that level. But maybe they did like, not to give those people a pass, but like I said, maybe the 57th guy didn't know that there was 56 people before. Maybe they didn't know what they were doing to her. Not that that excuses them going in and raping her, which is a crime and a travesty all on its own. But,
I don't know. Even the original four, we'll call them. The four original teenage perpetrators. Yeah. And the parents. And the parents. The fact that there were four of them at that level of depravity is insane. And they all found each other. How often do we talk about this on the show? The fact that they all found each other. Like how did the members of Aerosmith all find each other? Right? How did these pieces of shit all wind up in the same town?
Right. And then act on it. Mm-hmm.
Minato's parents and brother, by the way, who were all living and breathing under the same exact roof as Junko every single day of her 44-day nightmare, were not charged with anything. Yeah, that's wild. Joe Agura, who served eight years in a juvenile prison and was released in August of 1999, was again convicted in May of 2004 of kidnapping and assaulting a man and then was sentenced to another five to seven more years in prison. What's with the sentences over there?
Very light. Very light. Lenient. Very lenient. I mean, as I said, right, the juvenile system, they're intentionally lenient. Yeah. Because the goal of the court is to rehabilitate and reintegrate. But at this point, they're adults. These second time around the track crimes. Yeah. And to me, everything they got dished out were slaps on the wrist. Yeah. Each one of them got away with murder. Listen, okay, execution, I don't know if that's extreme or not. It may be. It's the most extreme possible.
The only alternative would be life in prison. But that's like a fucking waste of resources and time and everything. Like, why do they get to live? I guess because in this case, they were children. Yeah, not right. Listen, again, there are kids who, you know, step on a cockroach and think it's funny and then realize later on that killing things is, you know, doesn't feel great.
Then there's the kids who find a mouse, run over it with their bicycle, stomp on it, grab the tails, throw it around, like torturing animals. That's like a precursor to being a serial killer. Yes, it is. How are these kids not...
being held accountable for that. It wasn't even an animal. It was a human being. Not that an animal is better. And they weren't even five or six. Right. They were borderline adults, arguably adults. Absolutely. I mean, the Japanese judiciary system, as I said, missed the mark entirely on this. Four times. By the way, speaking of a mouse and a bike. Yeah. When I lived in New York City, there was a crack in the cement outside of my apartment building and stuck...
Inside the crack was the little face of a mouse. Oh my gosh. So I went up to my apartment. I got a pair of gloves and a shoebox and Vaseline. And I got the little guy out. You greased that little fucker out of the crack? Listen, there's so many people walking. The thing was going to get stomped to death. I couldn't bear it. Yeah. Okay, so we said Joe Agoura gets out of prison. Then he goes back into prison. Pop quiz. What did Joe Agoura's mother do after his initial arrest following Junko's murder?
What? Start a foundation? No. You're giving these people way too much credit. Killed herself? Nope. She vandalized her grave? Yep.
She vandalized Junko's grave for ruining her son's life. Wow, what a fuck. Have you ever. What an idiot. I thought that was like an Italian mom thing.
No. Just kidding. Sorry, Italians. No. Just like ultimate, you know, delusional pride. Right. To think that this girl ruined her son's life. How about the other way around? How about definitely the other way around? How about this girl's poor parents and two brothers? Yeah. And her mother is said to have gone understandably into a very, very deep depression following this. I don't see how you ever come out of that type of depression. No. In court, it came out...
According to some sources, by the way, which speaks to something that you raised a little bit earlier in the episode about the frontal lobe, that Hiroshi Miyano had a tumor on the frontal lobe of his brain, which if true, may have contributed to his manipulative personality, lack of empathy and sadistic tendencies. Yeah. Because brain trauma to the...
prefrontal cortex is not an uncommon occurrence in people with psychopathy. Especially a tumor. Right. The prefrontal cortex, which is located...
just a little science lesson here, medical lesson. It's located in the brain's frontal lobe right behind the forehead. Yeah. Right? So it's the brain's control center and it's responsible for executive functions like expression of personality, decision-making, moderating social behavior, and our emotional responses to stress. That's what makes us people. Exactly right. So someone with an injury or a trauma or a tumor to the prefrontal cortex basically...
could very likely underestimate the consequences of their actions. I've heard that like the prefrontal cortex is almost like an emergency brake that stops us from making decisions that we will likely regret later on. Reptilian. That's the other part, the back part of the brain. And that's a little I Heart Huckabee's humor for those of you who don't know. Our favorite, our favorite movie. All said and done,
All of the sentences were far too lenient given the level of perversion and brutality. In the Junko Furuta murder case, there are a variety of issues to consider, namely the shortcomings of the Japanese justice system, the failure of law enforcement, and the dangers of organized crime. This case also serves as a sobering reminder of the consequences of unchecked male entitlement, male fragility, and the need for legal reform and responsive policing.
Do you think this is male fragility or is this psychopathy? Like you said, obviously they're men. So it's, it's. So the way I look at it and I'm not a, not a psychologist, right. But the way I look at it is their male fragility was initially triggered or, or damaged and it set them off. Yeah. And then their psychopathy took over to a point where they enjoyed what
Yeah, because I've been publicly humiliated twice by women that I was interested in. Young. I was not even women. Girls. I was in like seventh grade. I didn't make me want to kill anybody. And I'm pretty fragile. Yeah.
Right. But you also weren't a man at that point. Neither were these kids. True, but they were close. These kids just fucking suck. I don't know. To try and figure it out and pinpoint what went wrong, it's obviously a losing game because there was just a lot of things wrong.
No matter how you look at it, Junko was let down on every level imaginable. Yeah, the police thing especially. Yeah, including law enforcement, parents, classmates, the entirety of the human race. Yeah. The tragedy of such a young girl with a full and bright future ahead of her being treated in the way that I just explained for 44 days is a level of heartbreak that I cannot fully begin to articulate.
So I'll leave off with some words that were spoken during Junko's eulogy that we can remember and honor when we think about the beautiful life that was lost. Because on April 2nd, Junko's funeral was held and she was finally laid to rest surrounded by her friends and family. One of her friends' memorial statement said...
June Chan, which was their nickname for her. Welcome back. I have never imagined that we would see you again in this way. You must have been in so much pain, so much suffering. The happy we all made for the school festival looked really good on you. A happy, by the way, is a traditional, like, Japanese coat.
We will never forget you. I have heard that the principal has presented your parents with a graduation certificate. So we graduated together, all of us. June Chan, there is no more pain, no more suffering. Please rest in peace.
Yeah, rest in peace for real. Rest in peace. That's why I said thank God when she died, by the way, obviously. Like, I don't know. It's too much. There was a lot to... I can't stop thinking about the broken light bulb. I know. The firecrackers. Like, these kids went fucking haywire. Oh, I mean, they're with every type of form of abuse. It's like they literally...
said, how can we do this harder, worse, more painful, more excruciating? Let's try it. Let's do it. Yeah. I mean, she was bleeding. She had pus oozing out of her. She had- Set her on fire. Set her on fire. Her features were distorted. She was bleeding out. She obviously couldn't eat. She obviously couldn't drink. And they enjoyed it. And they enjoyed it. Yeah, this is probably the worst case we've ever done. It is absolutely the most heartbreaking case. This is terrible. Yeah.
And it was requested by two people. So I gave you what you wanted. And now I feel really bad about that. So I'm looking at Tank's face and he does not look well. No, this was a rough one. This is bad. I'm junco. She would have been 52 years old if she were still alive today. Yeah.
That's, I mean, that's, it's just, it's very bad. I don't even, I can't even think of a great word to describe it because I don't need to describe it because you just heard it. Yeah. So if you're speechless as well, I'm right there with you. And I'm sorry you had to listen to this. It's a well-known case in the true crime community. Isn't this the thrill you were looking for? It's well-known because it really is just absolutely unbelievable.
You couldn't make a movie this horrible. No, they'd never allow you to make it as much. It would have to be like a snuff film. I had to step away from the research like a couple of times, as you can imagine doing this, because you get really wrapped up, or I'll speak for myself, I get really wrapped up in the research and I get really wrapped up like in the psychology and the laws and this and that.
And then it hits me as it should, that this is a human being. Yeah. That this happened to a child. She was 17 years old. And I almost get like overcome with like anxiety, emotion, sadness. Like I literally had to walk away a couple of times from this and I keep seeing her face and
Did you look up her face? Of course. And I looked up the oil drum that was where her remains were placed. And I'm looking at her and I'm like, her body's in there. It just...
It is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. I don't know how her family could ever recover from something like this. And I just don't know how these boys got the sentencing that they got. It was nothing. It was a drop in the bucket. If I was from the UK, I might say I was gorted. I don't know what that means. Gorted. Like...
Like sick, gut-wrenching. Okay. Disappointed. Yeah, all of the above. In humanity and life in general. Right, right. But not in you for bringing us this great case. Thanks a lot, Investigator Slater. I'm going to go cry in my bed. Yeah, I'm sorry. Eat the pain away or something. Oh, do that. Yeah. Go get your favorite. Go get peanut butter and Cheez-Its. Cheez-Its. Mix it into concrete in my throat and then wash it down with a Coke Zero. Yep.
Go. That's what I do. It's not 4 a.m., so it's not time yet. But yeah, thanks for, like I said, dragging us through this case. I didn't know how apropos that was going to be. But thank you for doing all the research and putting this case together and for sitting through it and toughing it out. And for those of you who are listening...
We'll see you next week. We will. Make sure to leave a rating, a review, subscribe, tell a friend, tell an enemy, obviously. Tell a frenemy. If you want them to have a bad day, listen to this podcast or episode and it will ruin their life in the best way possible because ultimately what we serve up here is thrills and laughs. I got nothing. She's got nothing. And that's it. We'll see you next week. Bye.