Murderer of Chinese student in Japan gets 20 years, escapes death penalty

Mom of victim ‘very disappointed’ with Japanese law

A Tokyo court has returned a verdict in a case which has consumed China’s internet in recent months, sentencing a Chinese man to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for the brutal killing of a young Chinese student — a decision that disappointed the student’s mother, who was seeking the death penalty for her daughter’s murderer.

Jiang Ge, a 24-year-old Chinese post-graduate student who was studying at Tokyo’s Hosei University was killed inside of her apartment building on November 3rd, 2016, stabbed to death just outside the door of her rented flat by Chen Shifeng, 26, the ex-boyfriend of her roommate.

Jiang’s roommate, Liu Xin, a Chinese woman in her twenties, had reportedly moved in with Jiang two months prior to the incident after breaking up with Chen. That afternoon, Chen had arrived at the apartment looking for Liu. After quarreling, the three left the apartment and went their separate ways.

That night, Liu returned back to the apartment first. She told police that she was changing clothes when she heard someone screaming outside her door. She said that she tried to open the door, but was unable to, finding it blocked, so she called the police instead. It is believed that Jiang was trying to protect Liu when she was killed by Chen.

The Tokyo court began hearing the case on December 11th with each update being widely circulated and discussed on Weibo. Earlier today, the court finally delivered a verdict, finding Chen guilty of intentional homicide and intimidation with the judge saying that he had arrived at the residence carrying a knife with the intention to commit murder.

Back in November, Jiang’s mother, Jiang Qiulian, began circulating a petition calling for the death penalty for her daughter’s murderer. However, capital punishment is a rarity in Japan with only two executions carried out last year.

Meanwhile, the case also gained widespread attention on Chinese social media as Jiang Qiulian accused Liu of being partially responsible for the tragedy, charging that she had purposefully kept her daughter locked out of the apartment as she was attacked and stabbed to death.

In addition, Jiang has accused Liu of failing to reach out to her following the incident, refusing requests to provide her with details and not even offering her condolences. In response, Jiang exposed personal information and photos of Liu and her parents on Weibo, urging investigative net users to post Liu’s whereabouts and help shame her into responding to her requests.

For her part, Liu had denied these accusations, insisting that she did not lock the door before Jiang was attacked and claiming that she had been banned by police from speaking with any members of Jiang’s family in order to not compromise the investigation. The two have been unable to reconcile, with Liu blaming Jiang for launching a massive cyber-bullying campaign against her which has ruined her life.

After the verdict was announced, many netizens took to Weibo to express their dissatisfaction, arguing that Chen should have received the death penalty for his cold-blooded murder of Jiang.

The one most dissatisfied with the verdict was Jiang Qiulian. At a press conference following the trial, she said that she was “very disappointed” with Japanese law and felt that she had let down the 4.5 million people who had signed her death penalty petition.