Junko Furuta was a 17-year-old high school student when she was kidnapped and severely tortured by four teenage boys for 44 days before finally succumbing to their violence and being killed.
Her killers received lighter sentences because they were minors, as well as due to having connections with Japan’s powerful organized crime syndicate known as the Yakuza.
Her Captivity
Junko Furuta was an 18-year-old Japanese high school student who had never gotten in trouble. She was known as an unassuming and quiet girl who never drank or used drugs.
On November 25th 1988 in Misato, she was riding home after work when two boys attacked. They forced her off the road before assaulting and sexually assaulting her.
Hiroshi Miyano and Nobuharu Minato, both 16 years old, pretended to be her friends when bringing her into their house for captivity.
They tortured and raped her for 40 to 44 days – with attacks so intense that it swollen her face and severely damaged both of her hands.
Abuse caused her internal organs to rupture, rendering her incapable of urinating normally and leading to severe dehydration. Furthermore, the gang locked her up for hours at a time in their freezer which lead to extreme dehydration before finally leading her captors’ home where she died of torture.
Her Death
Junko Furuta’s body finally collapsed under 44 days of horrifying rapes and torture; her infected wounds leaked pus, while organs had become severely compromised.
She had been so badly hurt that she couldn’t urinate properly; it took more than an hour for her to find herself back to the bathroom so she could use it. Additionally, both of her eardrums had been damaged, as had been part of her brain which had shrunk in size.
After 44 days of tormenting her life was finally brought to an end when the boys set her on fire and covered her body with cement before packing it into an oil drum and depositing it at a park, going undiscovered for months.
Her Captors
Junko furuta was an honors student with high grades who did not drink or use drugs, such as marijuana. On November 25th 1988 she was riding home from her part-time job when a random boy attacked and threw her off her bicycle, leaving her critically injured and without an escape route home.
Hiroshi Miyano came forward and offered to walk her home safely; however, he later denied having seen anything of the incident.
Miyano and his friends soon after seduced Junko into coming with them to their house; Junko was their leader and had previously sexually exploited multiple women.
Gang-raped her with various objects such as scissors, bottles, weights, needles, grilled chicken skewers and exploding firework sticks; further forcing her to drink her own urine and masturbate before them.
Minato held her captive and subjected her to unimaginable torture during that period, including starving, beating and setting on fire while she was held there for over 40 days – unfortunately for them though, their captors managed to escape with little retribution from any court rulings against them.
The Trial
Junko Furuta was an 18-year-old high school student known as Jun-chan to her friends for having good grades, not smoking cigarettes and never drinking alcohol.
On November 25th 1988, she was riding home from her part-time job on her bicycle when an unknown boy suddenly threw her off her bike and ran off; later arrested by the police for rape charges.
As soon as the police found her, they discovered she had been tortured and sexually abused by four young boys: Shinji Minato, Hiroshi Miyano, Jo Ogura and Yasushi Watanabe.
Due to their young ages at the time of the crime, their identities were kept a secret during trial. Although the boys admitted causing bodily injury leading to death, most expected more severe punishment from a court. Instead, they received much lighter sentences than expected from authorities.
The four men were given sentences ranging from three to nine years in prison – much lighter punishment than would normally be given in an adult murder case – yet still left many people feeling uncomfortable about what had transpired.