Maybe I’m being overly-sensitive here, or just plain naive, but is it wise to publish information about an ongoing criminal investigation?

The Mainichi published an article yesterday stating that Lindsay Ann Hawker’s suspected murderer, Tatsuya Ichihashi, is hiding out in Ikebukuro (a shopping and entertainment district in northern Tokyo).

The article can be found here.

The article states that a man who looks very similar to Ichihashi has been hanging out in Ikebukuro, patronizing a pachinko parlor, a hotel and some restaurants. It was also reported that “a large number of investigators” have been sent to Ikebukuro in response to the some 40 tips that have been received by the Chiba Prefectural Police. The article also seems to indicate that Ichihashi has been living in Ikebukuro since just after the murder last spring.

Context: Just over a year ago, the naked body of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a teacher in Chiba, was found in a bathtub filled with sand on the balcony of Tatsuya Ichihashi’s apartment. Following up on a tip and a missing-person report, the Chiba Prefectural Police sent nine of its finest to question Ichihashi. Even though they had him cornered in his own home, he managed to out-maneuver all of them, bolt from the apartment and outrun them in his bare feet. He has eluded apprehension to this day.

Lindsay’s family has done an amazing job of keeping this case in the spotlight, and they come to Tokyo every so often to get information about the investigation and remind people that Ichihashi could kill again.

Back to the Mainichi article: it’s difficult to verify the veracity of the information provided in the article (English and Japanese versions of the article can be viewed by clicking the link above) as the Mainichi reporter, Yamamoto, declined to cite any of his sources. It seems possible that information already available to the public, including a couple old images of the suspect, was cobbled together into a news report.

If there is a comprehensive police stakeout of Ikebukuro in place at the moment, then publication of this information is obviously not helpful unless Ichihashi is tired of running and is actually trying to get caught.

Of course, we have seen how ineffective police stakeouts can be, so maybe it’s good to tune some additional sets of eyeballs in to the hunt.

If you didn’t take a moment to click on the link above, I’ll fill you in to what went on during that “ineffective police stakeout”. After murdering a 72-year-old with a knife in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Masahiro Kanagawa flew under the radar for a couple of days by staying at a hotel near Akihabara station in Tokyo. The police, hoping to grab him if and when he made his way back to his hometown, stationed eight plainclothes officers around Arakawaoki train station. The problem was that none of them were given radios or weapons. Consequently, they were not able to communicate with each other when Kanagawa did in fact arrive on the Joban line, knives in hand, and proceeded to stab eight people, including one officer, before eventually calling police from an unmanned police station notifying them that he wished to turn himself in.

If you just slapped your own forehead in disbelief, let me assure you that you’re not alone. It’s probably safe to say that Kanagawa would have gotten away if he hadn’t turned himself in.

Anyway, a phone number for people with information (047-397-0110) has been provided. However, if you have information to report, I recommend doing so in Japanese.

But it seems to me that the publication of this information, if its contents are true, is likely to promote either vigilante justice (there’s at least one group of non-Japanese residents that has taken it upon themselves to search for Ichihashi) or Ichihashi’s movement to another bustling locale.

However, let’s not forget the possibility that this is merely old information that has been discredited and abandoned by the Chiba Prefectural Police department but became news fodder so that the cops could look like they were making headway while the Hawker family was in town earlier this week. Or, perhaps more likely, that this is just a reporter from the police press club that is simply doing his job. He had this information for quite some time, but was finally told that he could print it this week. Either way, it’s probably safe to assume that whenever the police started to suspect that Ichihashi was hanging out in Ikebukuro, it would have been at least a few months ago.

If that’s the case, then let’s just hope that this press release is part of some larger police-controlled misinformation campaign that is designed to get Ichihashi to drop his guard and make a mistake.

Or the Yomiuri is on a roll. But more on that just a bit later.

Missing any fingers? Don’t fret, you can probably still count the legislative achievements of the Diet under the Fukuda administration on one hand.

An entire twice-extended extraordinary Diet session spent on the Maritime Self Defense Force’s refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean managed to address none of the important underlying questions and instead gave us nearly four months blown on an issue anyone unrelated to the sailors would have to squint really, really hard to see as mattering in any real way.

Prime Minister Fukuda’s first ordinary Diet session is shaping up, as many observers predicted, to offer not much more in terms of legislative achievement. Sure, the budget passed, but that was never really in doubt. That was never going to be a battle, it was never going to require political skill.

The gas tax was. (Read on …)

SATURDAY & MONDAY UPDATES BELOW

This story hit the presses after we put the latest edition of TPR News to bed.

At about 9:20 p.m. on Wednesday night, Shinagawa-based taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi was found just where he was supposed to be: in Yokosuka, in his cab, seatbelt buckled. Unfortunately, there was a knife in his back. (Read on …)

We’ve been away, but we haven’t forgotten you, dear listeners. Thanks for sticking around - don’t forget to check out some of TPR’s other recent releases while TPR News has been away, viz. a couple new installments of Japan’s (self-declared) finest political podcast, Seijigiri.

In this edition of TPR News: More bad news for the PM; the gas tax fight continues as government waste comes to light; the opposition rejects three for the BOJ; North Korea might make it off the terrorism sponsor list; KFC prices to rise; kafunsho is bad for GDP; ShinGinko Tokyo, Shinsei Bank, and Resona Bank in trouble; and acquittals.

Politics

Things are just not looking up for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. According to a Yomiuri Shimbun poll last weekend, support for the Cabinet dropped to a new low of 33.9% as disapproval climbed to 54%. The leading reason for disapproval of the Cabinet was “Cannot approve of the Cabinet’s political stance,” followed by “Cannot expect much from the Cabinet’s economic policy” and “Cabinet lacks stability.”

With the contentious gas tax set to expire at the end of the month, the opposition DPJ may have the public on its side. In an Asahi Shimbun poll, 59% of respondents said they opposed the ruling coalition’s bill to extend the three-decade old temporary tax. The same percentage said revenues raised by the tax should be considered general funds and not be earmarked for road construction. The same poll saw Prime Minister Fukuda’s disapproval rating climb over 50% for the first time. In the aforementioned Yomiuri poll, 64% of respondents opposed extending the gas tax beyond its March 31st expiration date. Interestingly, though, 63% of the respondents to the Yomiuri poll also said the ruling and opposition camps should make concessions to reach an agreement on the gas tax bill - a process that, because of the ruling coalition’s supermajority in the Lower House, would seem to favor the extension of the gas tax that the ruling coalition seeks. (Read on …)

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 TPR News: 03/21/2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The 42nd release of Seijigiri is out just about on time. In this edition of the show, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin by looking at the continuing mess with Japan’s pension system. Last week, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe announced that although 20.25 million of the over 50 million unidentified pension records could not be identified, “As promised, the government has completed its efforts to match all the accounts to their owners by the end of March.” In reality, only 11.72 million accounts have been identified, and just over 4 million have been put into the system.

From there, the discussion turns to look at how party politics are playing out in the process of finding a new Governor for the Bank of Japan. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate, current Deputy Governor Toshiro Muto, has been rejected by the opposition controlled Upper House. Although this story is still active and being played out, it seems as though the DPJ’s near-shameless politicalization of the issue is actually good for Japan in some ways.

After that, Seijigiri takes a look at newly formed citizen group Sentaku, a movement which, in the words of Jun Okamura, “[D]ecries the political passivity on the part of the public and the reliance on the central bureaucracy and seeks to launch a thoroughgoing reform in the way we live and work by way of a new bottom-up, people’s rights movement.” Who’s involved and what are they up to?

Finally, a quick glance is made towards North Korea, as the Japanese government has decided to extend the economic sanctions against the country that were set to expire in April. Although Japan’s issues with North Korea have has low priority in the news cycle over the past few months, our hosts postulate on just what might happen to push North Korea back on the front page.

As always, thank you for listening!

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 Seijigiri #42: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this edition of TPR spotlight, Debito Arudou joins TPR’s Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley to discuss the upcoming release of his new book, Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants, which is set to go on sale from March 15.

In the interview, Debito speaks about why the book was written, what kinds of resources it offers for people moving to Japan, his relationship with co-author Akira Higuchi, the upcoming book tour, and what might be in store for the future of Japan’s increasing number of foreign residents who decide to stay in Japan long term, if not permanently.

For more information on the book, and on Debito’s upcoming book tour, please see his blog at www.debito.org.

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 Spotlight #6 - Debito Arudou: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Baseball season is coming!

There was one hell of a free agent class this year with 17 players reaching free agency for the first time. A total of 68 players became free agents at the end of the 2007 baseball season, and there are some notable names in that group.

It appears that all 68 free agents have signed contracts as of March, 2008. Several guys will be trying their luck in the majors this year.

It was reported that six guys switched clubs in both 1994 and 2001. I don’t know if that was some kind of record, but far more than six guys moved around during the 2007-2008 off-season. And might I be so bold as to suggest that the trend will continue in the future.

Here are some of the names that have made the news this off-season:

Kazuhiro Wada (Seibu Lions) was looking around a bit before the Japan Series got under way. He became a free agent after 11 seasons with the Saitama-based team. The team had signaled its intent to keep him on and even mentioned a future coaching position as a symbol of its interest in the 35-year-old veteran’s services.

In 2005, Wada was the batting champion of the Pacific League. He had been a solid contributor to the Lion’s many winning campaigns since he arrived.

Unfortunately for the Lions, he eventually worked out a three-year deal with the Chunichi Dragons worth a reported 840 million yen. The veteran has put together a solid career so far, and it should be interesting to see if he is able to keep performing at the .300-plus level for the next few seasons. I don’t see any reason, barring injury, why he shouldn’t be able to do just that.

(Read on …)

This edition of Seijigiri is a day late, but hopefully less than a dollar short (what’s the dollar worth now anyway?)

Co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin with a brief discussion on Friday’s passing of the national budget by the lower house, which guarantees that it will be set to go into effect when the new fiscal year starts in April.

From there, the discussion moves to focus on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, and the reasons why his approval ratings are dropping (as well as why his disapproval ratings are falling). Like his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, Fukuda took the helm during an extraordinary Diet session and seems to have run into trouble early in his first regular session. With the public unhappy over his administration’s response to the poison gyoza scandal, the sinking of a fishing vessel by an MSDF destroyer, and political gridlock arising from the opposition’s control of the upper house, our hosts ponder how Fukuda could survive, and what pressures he’s going to encounter in the runup to this summer’s G-8 conference in Hokkaido.

Listen Now:

 Seijigiri #41: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

March 1st

“Today marks the declaration of Korean independence. There will be peaceful demonstrations all over Korea. If our meetings are orderly and peaceful, we shall receive the help of President Wilson and the great powers at Versailles, and Korea will be a free nation.”

On this day in 1919, at 2:00 p.m., Korean Nationalists involved with what would come to be known as the Samil Movement read the Korean Declaration of Independence to crowds throughout the country.

The Declaration was written by the historian Choe Nam-seon and the poet Manhae and propagated by a core group of 33, mostly Christian and student, activists. Although the core group of activists, concerned about lage demonsrations, met initially in the Taehwagwan restaurant in Seoul, public demonstrations around Korea attracted up to a total of two million people.
(Read on …)

Tyrone Hadnott, the 38-year-old Marine that was arrested after allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa on the night of February 10th, has been released.

The girl has apparently withdrawn the accusations that she leveled against Hadnott, so he has not been indicted and will not be prosecuted in a Japanese court of law.

The girl reportedly said she didn’t want the problem to grow, that she wanted the ordeal to be over, and asked to be left alone.

The alleged rape has caused the entire military establishment in and across Japan to impose tight curfews on all soldiers and their dependents during the past two and a half weeks, with service members and their families being confined to base or their quarters 24 hours a day.

Hadnott reportedly admitted that he forcibly tried to kiss the girl but denied raping her.

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, took time to discuss the scandal when she visited this week. The alleged assault had fueled nationwide condemnation of the lack of discipline within the ranks of the US military forces.