ASHIKAGA, Tochigi Pref. — Itoko Nishimaki felt something was wrong when she learned that a kindergarten bus driver like herself once admitted, and then denied, that he had kidnapped and killed a 4-year-old girl.
That feeling stayed with her and became the driving force behind her nearly 17-year quest to prove what she believed was right — he is not the true culprit.
The "curious coincidence," as Nishimaki, 60, put it, prompted her to send the first of a series of letters to Toshikazu Sugaya and meet him in person, a man she describes as nice, pure and friendly — the complete opposite of the brutal criminal projected in the media.