By next week, the media will start compiling lists of the top news stories of 2012. The short list can be expected to include natural and manmade disasters, political bombshells, international disputes, indiscretions by celebrities in the worlds of sports and entertainment and, of course, sensational crimes.
For the latter, the year's top story in Japan is almost certain to be the Amagasaki renzoku fushin-shi jiken (Amagasaki incident involving a series of suspicious deaths).
On Oct. 30, a metal drum filled with concrete and containing the corpse of Jiro Hashimoto, was pulled out of the harbor in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture. Hashimoto, age 53 at the time he was believed to have been beaten to death in September last year, was the younger brother of Hisayoshi Sumida, who died at age 51 in 2005 when he "accidentally" fell off a cliff in Cape Manza, Okinawa.