Tokyo police announced Wednesday that they have rearrested three individuals, including the CEO of a painting company, on suspicion of assaulting a former colleague five months before his death in an alleged staged suicide.
Authorities believe the victim, 56-year-old Osamu Takano, was repeatedly abused by the suspects over many years, which left him physically and mentally incapable of resisting when he was allegedly coerced into entering a railway crossing in December 2023, where he was struck by a train.
Police investigating the events leading to his death uncovered this new evidence of abuse.
The three rearrested suspects are company president Manabu Sasaki, 39, and his employees — Akihito Shimahata, 34, and Atsuya Iwaide, 30.
According to police, on July 12, 2023, at around 7:30 p.m., the three assaulted Takano at a hotel in the city of Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, during a business trip, holding him upside down, dropping him headfirst onto a bed and choking him by wrapping an arm around his neck. The Metropolitan Police Department cited the use of "pro-wrestling techniques.”
According to investigators, the suspects laughed and took turns assaulting Takano, and filmed the act on their smartphones. A 30-minute video captured them punching and kicking him in the face as he begged them to stop.
Takano joined the company in February 2015 but faced persistent harassment from Sasaki and others over alleged workplace mistakes. He left the company in August 2020, but returned in February 2021, when the bullying reportedly escalated.
Evidence uncovered from the suspects' mobile phones includes photos and videos allegedly depicting the repeated physical and sexual abuse of Takano.
He was also reportedly forced to write multiple notes stating, “Next time I fail, I’ll die.”
In December 2023, Sasaki, Shimahata, and Iwaide, along with another employee of the same company, 39-year-old Shunta Nozaki, confined Takano in a car and took him to a railway crossing in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward, where they allegedly orchestrated his death by train.
The four were arrested last month on suspicion of murder and forced confinement. Shimahata and Nozaki have been indicted on both charges, while Sasaki and Iwaide have been indicted on the confinement charge only.
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