Death sentence confirmed after killer of two Osaka junior high school students drops appeal
A death sentence for a man convicted of murdering two junior high school students in Osaka has been finalized after he dropped an appeal, it was learned Tuesday. According to the Osaka High Court, the appeal against the Osaka District Court ruling of December last ...
It still takes a village to keep our kids safe
The murders of 13-year-old Natsumi Hirata and 12-year-old Ryoto Hoshino in Osaka last month sparked a heated conversation in the media about the state of parenting in Japan. Hirata and Hoshino were caught wandering the streets on security cameras during the wee hours of Aug. ...
With the investigation into the murder of two teenagers from Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, apparently making little headway, police are looking into links with that case and similar crimes the suspect was convicted of more than a decade ago. Koji Yamada, 45, was arrested Aug. 21 ...
The murder this month of two junior high school students from Osaka Prefecture who loitered around a train station until the morning of the day they disappeared, has highlighted the problem of street children and prompted locals to enhance measures to protect them. On Aug. ...
Suspect in Osaka murder may have sent messages from victim's phone: sources
The suspect may have used the victim's Line smartphone app to send messages to her friend after kidnapping her, investigative sources said.
Police link adhesive tape found on bodies of slain Osaka boy, girl
Authorities send the murder suspect to prosecutors as police raid the onetime lodging of the man, a former worker in the Fukushima nuclear decontamination effort.
Man arrested in Osaka murder case likely acted alone, police say
The man arrested late Friday in connection with the murder in Osaka of 13-year-old Natsumi Hirata, whose body was found with multiple lacerations and whose head and face were bound with adhesive tape, likely acted alone, investigators said Saturday. The suspect, Koji Yamada, 45, told ...
Line messages from slain girl's missing phone talked of going to Kyoto, not coming back
Line messages were sent to a friend from the mobile phone of Natsumi Hirata, a 13-year-old girl who was found slain in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, on Aug. 13, saying she would go to Kyoto and probably wouldn't be coming back, it was learned Friday. Police ...
Body found in Osaka parking lot confirmed as that of missing 13-year-old girl
The body of a girl found in a parking lot in Osaka Prefecture last week was confirmed Tuesday to be that of a 13-year-old who went missing with a boy from her school a day earlier, police said. Natsumi Hirata, a first-year junior high school ...
