Framed by a false accusation
The full story of the incident that cost a young man his life and how chronic judicial misconduct contributed to his death
“If you’re suspected of molesting someone, run away immediately. If you go to the stationmaster’s office, your life is over.”
In Japan, the above saying is well known and represents commonsense advice that you should definitely heed if you ever visit the country. This isn’t an exaggeration. The term “molesting” here refers to acting indecently — for instance, by intentionally touching another passenger inappropriately on a train. It typically involves surreptitiously fondling another person’s buttocks from behind, taking advantage of the jam-packed carriage. Victims are mostly female.
Whether or not someone has actually molested another passenger, if they’re suspected of it, they’re taken to the stationmaster’s office at the next station, and the police will rush there immediately. Subsequently, the suspect will be interrogated continuously until they confess to the crime. This being the case, it’s not surprising there are many reports of suspected molesters fleeing from stations to the railroad tracks or other buildings.
There’s a young man, however, who was suspected of molestation and never had the chance to flee because he was assaulted by a group of strangers. And then, as a result of being branded a suspect by the police, he took his life at the age of 25. Why did this young man, the victim of a false accusation, have to die? The audio recordings he left behind reveal the entire case and the endemic professional misconduct of the Japanese criminal justice system.
From victim to suspect
On the night of December 10, 2009, Shinsuke Harada, then 25, was at Japan Rail’s Shinjuku Station. People at his new workplace had thrown a welcome party for him, and he was on his way home from the party and about to catch a train. It was around 11 p.m. As he climbed some stairs at the station, a young woman suddenly screamed, “He just touched my stomach! Pervert! He just touched me!”
Immediately, several men appeared, dragged Shinsuke down the stairs, surrounded him, and violently assaulted him by kicking him. The men, who were university students, were friends of the woman who had screamed.
Unable to understand why this was happening to him, Shinsuke continued to be assaulted, eventually managing to call the police for help on his cell phone.
A few minutes later, station staff and police arrived on the scene, but the victim of the assault, Shinsuke, was taken to the police box and then to the Shinjuku police station for questioning as the perpetrator of the alleged molestation. Despite having sustained injuries in the severe assault, he received no treatment for them.
As the investigation progressed, the female student who had accused Shinsuke of molesting her, and the men who had assaulted him, claimed that they hadn’t seen or couldn’t remember the face of the alleged perpetrator. Since Shinsuke’s clothing was different from that described by the female student in her testimony, the police wrote a memo stating, “There is no evidence of molestation, and the incident will be recorded as a case of mutual assault.” They gave this written assurance to Shinsuke, who was released around 4:00 in the morning.
After taking a nap on a sofa at the police station, Shinsuke took the subway to Waseda Station on the Tozai line. He then threw himself under a train from the familiar platform he used to use as a university student.
At about 6:40 a.m., paramedics rushed to the scene and tended to Shinsuke. Barely conscious, the only responses he was able to give to questions were his name and date of birth.
Much later that day, around 7:15 p.m., Shinsuke’s mother, Naomi, received a call from a police detective. He told her, “A man who I think is your son has been run over by a train and is in critical condition. Please come to the hospital immediately.” He said he was late in contacting her because he couldn’t find any identification in Shinsuke’s belongings. Mrs. Harada couldn’t understand what had happened, but she did as the detective told her and immediately went to the hospital.
Mrs. Harada recalled a recent conversation she’d had with Shinsuke, a kind young man who cared for his mother. When she entered the hospital room and saw the purple face of the person lying on a bed, she thought it couldn’t be Shinsuke. That hope, however, vanished instantly. The person before her, who was connected to various tubes, including one for a blood transfusion, and not moving in the slightest, was undoubtedly her beloved son. The doctor administered vigorous CPR, but Shinsuke couldn’t be resuscitated.
“Shinsuke, don’t go!” The doctor told Mrs. Harada that her son had gone into cardiopulmonary arrest at the age of 25.
Shinsuke threw himself under the train only 30 minutes after being released from the police station. It’s easy to imagine that his body, which had been severely injured in the assault, hadn’t healed, and that he was exhausted both physically and mentally after being held for many hours and bombarded with accusations that were completely unjustified.
Later, Mrs. Harada was shown a photo from one of the train station’s security cameras by the police. In it she saw a completely different Shinsuke from the neat and tidy young man she knew as her son. His shirt was hanging out, his hair was dishevelled, and he wasn’t holding his case.
The seven-hour recording left on the voice recorder
The voice recorder that Shinsuke carried with him to learn English recorded the seven hours from immediately after the incident until the moment he threw himself under the train. Audio of the entire interrogation, along with the names of the police officers, was preserved, providing evidence that proves his innocence and demonstrates that an illegal investigation took place.
Mrs. Harada listened to the recording and took notes. These notes show discrepancies in what the police said had happened, as if the Shinjuku police officers who had interrogated Shinsuke had discussed with each other how to get their story straight.
First, in the recording after Shinsuke is suspected of molestation and is taken from the train station where he was assaulted to the Shinjuku Nishiguchi police box, the police officer can be heard confiscating Shinsuke’s cell phone, saying that the recording might violate his human rights.
The logic of this is, of course, ridiculous. The truth is that the police are extremely cautious of being recorded, especially since they are aware that their behaviour is often unethical. Thus, when they discover an electronic device, they either confiscate it or frantically search it for any photos or any video or audio recordings that could be detrimental to them.
When Shinsuke tells the police officer that he’s expected home by his parents and wants to call them, the officer replies, “I can’t lend you my phone, but if you come with us to Shinjuku police station, they’ll lend you a phone there.” Shinsuke believes the officer and gets into the car to go to the police station. This, however, seems to have been a ruse since normally, if you’re a victim of an incident, you’re protected, and it’s the police’s responsibility, not yours, to call your family.
At the crime prevention section of Shinjuku police station, Shinsuke is subjected to a physical examination and questioned as a suspected molester. In addition, despite his insistent refusal, the police photograph him. He gives a detailed account of the assault he has suffered and has his alcohol level and his ability to walk and stand properly tested. When he asks if the male students who beat and kicked him are being interrogated in the same way, the police officer doesn’t answer clearly.
When Shinsuke asks to be allowed to make a phone call, the officer replies, “Not yet.” Pointing out how much alcohol Shinsuke has consumed, he says, “My superior ordered me not to let you.” Shinsuke then, as the victim of an assault, gives a detailed account of the incident, including the fact that two of the train station staff confronted him, saying, “You did it, didn’t you?”
Despite the account, the officer continues to treat Shinsuke as a suspect, suggesting, “You didn’t want to come to the police station because you were ashamed,” and alleging, “The woman saw your face clearly,” and, “You knew exactly what you were doing.”
The interrogation continues in this way until around 3:00 a.m. Shinsuke isn’t sure whether he’ll be summoned at a later date to be taken into custody but follows the police officer’s instructions and fills out a form confirming he understands the possibility. The officer tells Shinsuke that he’ll file a report about the assault at a later date.
The officer then tells Shinsuke, “Don’t go to work today as it will interfere with my duties.”
He adds, “There’s a possibility you’ll be the victim of gossip and false accusations, which could cause problems for you socially.”
He then asks, “Do you have any pictures from the train station or were there any witnesses there who could support your claims?”
Shinsuke realises that he’s actually being fully suspected of molestation. This nightmare is really happening. Sometime after 4:00 a.m., he’s in tears.
Later in the recording, Shinsuke can be heard sighing and murmuring, with the sound of running water in the background, as if he’s washing his face in the bathroom. “Let’s go,” he mutters, steeling himself and leaving the police station.
Why the police filed a report after Shinsuke’s death
On January 29, 2010, the police filed a report charging Shinsuke, the victim of an assault that had led to his suicide, with violation of the Ordinance for the Prevention of Nuisances due to an act of molestation. This was despite the fact that there had been no report or statement from the woman who claimed to have been the victim of the alleged molestation.
Mrs. Harada, suspecting the illegality of the investigation, filed a lawsuit for state compensation on April 26, 2011. This led to the case being dubbed the “Shinjuku Station False Assault Case” and then the “Shinjuku Police Department Outrageous Illegal Investigation Death Case,” bringing the police misconduct to the attention of the public.
The reason why the police filed the report following the death of the suspect was that Shinsuke’s suicide was due to a series of acts of police misconduct, including evidence destruction and tampering, and that the police were well aware of this. The intention was to entirely avoid the complete loss of public trust in the police, led by the Metropolitan Police Department in Kasumigaseki, that would be caused by the revelation of illegal acts leading to a death.
There were many discrepancies between the facts revealed by the voice recorder and what Mrs. Harada was told by the police. The police account was a fiction to cover up the blunders of the officers who had made the false accusation.
For example, the deputy police chief at the time told Mrs. Harada that Shinsuke had been interviewed in the public safety section, not the crime prevention section. This officer also claimed that he had noticed that one of the university students who had assaulted Shinsuke was present in the police station for questioning. Both of these statements, however, were contrary to the facts.
The police understand that the way they conducted the interrogation wasn’t “just a mistake”. When asked about Shinsuke’s condition at the time, they told Mrs. Harada that there had been no external injuries. Mrs. Harada said, “He should have been treated at the hospital first,” and “His responses lacked vigour, and his speech at the end of the voice recording was gradually becoming strange. I think he may have been suffering a brain injury.”
If treating Shinsuke’s injuries had at least been given priority, he might not have thrown himself under the train and his life would have been spared. It’s likely that Mrs. Harada, having lost her son so suddenly, would have such thoughts.
There’s another fact that Mrs. Harada’s lawyer discovered by requesting disclosure of the records of the case. The clothing of the man who had assaulted Shinsuke was different from that described in the eyewitness report.
As for the woman who claimed to have been molested, a typewritten report fabricated by the police was submitted on January 26, 2010, just prior to the case being sent to the prosecutor. The woman had been intoxicated at the time of the incident and had left the scene after submitting a written report that she was mistaken about the person who had molested her. She’d also stated that the scene of the incident wasn’t the station stairs but a passageway that wasn’t covered by a security camera.
The records also indicated that the police had set up a special task force three days after the incident. Without doubt, this was done to enable those involved in the case to collude on how to present the police case at trial.
The victimisation of the public by the judicial system
The police are an institution that protects itself, not the citizenry. Because of this fact, the people of Japan are being sacrificed on the altar of old practices and to cover up scandals both inside and outside the police organisation.
On November 17, 2017, eight years after the incident, the case brought by Shinsuke’s mother, Naomi, was rejected on appeal by the Supreme Court. The woman who was supposed to be the most important witness, and the men who assaulted Shinsuke, never appeared on the witness stand.
The judge ignored the security camera footage from the station where the incident took place. As a matter of course, the illegality of the police investigation wasn’t recognised at the trial, and Shinsuke was never exonerated.
Although false accusations are a problem in all countries, judicial systems change over time. Japan’s high rate of conviction and the lack of transparency in investigations, interrogations, and trials are completely unacceptable when one considers other countries’ justice systems.
It’s clear that the lack of audio and video recording in interrogation rooms and other settings contributes to false convictions in Japan. In situations where there’s no such recording, things that would be impermissible in a normal investigation become possible.
Accordingly, it goes without saying that the frequent occurrence of illegal investigations is leading to people being falsely convicted and their lives ruined. It’s shameful how confession-oriented and unfair the Japanese justice system is.
It’s rare for there to be a recording of the treatment of a wrongly accused victim like Shinsuke. Because Shinsuke left a record of the events leading up to his suicide, it was possible to uncover the full extent of the misconduct that occurred and pursue the issues raised by the misconduct with the responsible parties in the Japanese justice system.
Police departments reassure the victims of the Tokyo subway sarin attack and the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that they’re heartbroken over the seriousness of the ASD, PTSD, depression, and other psychological damage the victims have suffered.
On October 5, 2021, in an NHK television program on the death sentence handed down to the top leader of the Kudo-kai yakuza group, the police were portrayed as being on the side of justice when they introduced a victim’s testimony that she had stopped going out because she was afraid of retaliation by the Kudo-kai and when they provided 24-hour security for witnesses who hesitated testifying for fear of such retaliation.
The number of victims like Shinsuke and other victims of the judicial system and the mass media, however, far outnumber those of the Tokyo subway sarin attack and the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
In cases of obstruction of justice, a dozen or more police officers will sometimes work in cahoots to “reconstruct” an event and unify their story, this usually being judged as perjury.
Postscript
Regardless of whether a suspect has been falsely accused or is genuinely guilty, transparency during investigations and interrogations is so low that it’s a mystery what the facts actually are. Although recording and videotaping of interrogations have become more common in recent years, the right of a suspect to remain silent and the right to have legal counsel present continue not to be respected.
Consequently, the suspect can be detained for any period ranging from hours to months, resulting in a forced confession. Furthermore, the police, prosecutors, and courts routinely and systematically conceal evidence disadvantageous to the state and in favour of the accused, this having become their common practice.
The police are like confidence tricksters who use every possible method to manipulate people emotionally. The police, prosecutors, and judges exist only to keep themselves in power and protect their own; they don’t consider it their duty to defend ordinary citizens — in other words, non-government employees — who, in being regarded as suspects, are vulnerable to being held criminally responsible not only for their own alleged offences but also for any crimes or wrongdoings by the state, thereby being exploited and made scapegoats in order to conceal the state’s culpability.
Each day, a one-sided, flawed history is routinely produced and officially acknowledged for the sole purpose of maintaining a power structure that allows those in power to enjoy the status and benefits such power brings them. For this, innocent people have to suffer.
