Murder of Airi Kinoshita

Airi Kinoshita (木下 あいり?)
Born	Airi Kinoshita April 10, 1998 Kumamoto, Japan
Died	November 22, 2005(2005-11-22) (aged 7) Hiroshima, Japan
Cause of death	Murdered
Occupation	Student
Known for	Murder victim
Parents	Kenichi and Miwako
Website
星になったあいり

Jose Manuel Torres Yake
Born	February 1972 (age 39) Guadalupe, Peru
Charge(s)	Illegal entry into Japan, Sexual assault, Murder and Abandonment of corpse
Children	2

In 2005, Airi Kinoshita (木下あいり, Kinoshita Airi^?, April 10, 1998 – November 22, 2005), who was a seven year old first grade student from the Japanese city of Hiroshima, was sexually assaulted and murdered by Jose Manuel Torres Yake (born February 1972). He assumed the false name Juan Carlos Pizarro Yagi. Yake was wanted for a child sexual abuse charge at that time in Peru.^[1]

Murder

An autopsy revealed that she had been murdered within 90 minutes of leaving school around lunchtime on Tuesday, November 22, 2005. She died of suffocation caused by pressure to the neck. A local resident spotted the tape-bound cardboard box in which her body was found in a vacant lot in Hiroshima's Aki Ward. The box had been used as packaging for an oven sold in Higashi. Police said they suspected her killer lured Airi away as she was walking home and strangled her soon afterwards. Her schoolbag was found alongside a road about 300 meters away. She had been carrying a so-called crime prevention buzzer but it was missing when her body was found.

300 people attended her funeral in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, her father Kenichi's hometown. The mourners included Ground Self-Defense Force members who served with Kenichi. "I was deeply shocked when I was told by police that she was probably murdered," Kenichi said in an address during the funeral. "I feel animosity toward the person who committed the crime. I hope the culprit is caught soon."^{[citation needed]}

Arrest and trial

Japanese police arrested Yake on November 30, 2005. He insisted that he was a Peruvian of Japanese descent. Before the arrest, the Japanese mass media suspected that the criminal was an otaku, but this proved to be false.

At first Airi's real name was reported in the Japanese mass media. However when it was revealed that she had been sexually assaulted, the Japanese media stopped using her real name. Despite this, Airi's relatives wanted her real name to be reported. On June 26, 2006, her father Kenichi said:

“

"Airi is not 'a Hiroshima first-grader.' She lived here. It is all right to use her name."[2]

”

After this speech, Japanese mass media resumed reporting Airi's real name. The speech made the name Airi Kinoshita famous in Japan.

On July 4, 2006, the Hiroshima District Court sentenced Yake to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting and killing the girl, citing his haphazardness.^[3] He had dumped the girl's body close to his apartment. Prosecutors appealed against the leniency of the sentence, demanding the death penalty. On December 9, 2008, the Hiroshima High Court reversed and remanded the original verdict.^[4] However, the Supreme Court of Japan demanded them to continue his trial. The Hiroshima High Court upheld the life sentence, resulting in the end of his trial because they had not submitted an additional appeal by August 12, 2010.^[5]

Reaction

Kinoshita's death caused parents to panic in Japan, which had been thought to be a "safe society".^[6]

Yake faced a child sexual charge in Peru, and so the incident also gave influence on Latin America. A journalist, Kent Paterson, indicated him into debates of femicides in Latin America.^[7]

See also

• Kaoru Kobayashi
• Murder of Sayano Horimoto

References

1. ^ "Confessed killer dodged Peru court". The Japan Times. 2005-12-06. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20051206a6.html. Retrieved 2007-11-22. 
2. ^ "Slain girl's dad wants details of crime reported". The Japan Times. 2006-06-27. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060627a7.html. Retrieved 2008-02-11. 
3. ^ "Killer of girl, 7, gets life term". The Japan Times. 2006-07-05. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060705a1.html. Retrieved 2008-03-16. 
4. ^ "女児殺害のヤギ被告、１審無期を破棄・差し戻し…広島高裁" (in Japanese). Yomiuri Shimbun. 2008-12-09. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20081209-OYT1T00475.htm?from=top. Retrieved 2008-12-09. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "小１女児殺害で無期懲役確定　検察、弁護側双方上告せず" (in Japanese). Kyodo News. 47 News. 2010-08-11. http://www.47news.jp/CN/201008/CN2010081101000431.html. Retrieved 2010-10-19. 
6. ^ Joyce, Colin (2005-12-12). "Japanese parents in panic over murders". London: The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/12/wjapan12.xml. Retrieved 2008-04-20. 
7. ^ Kent Paterson (2006-03-08). "Femicide On the Rise in Latin America". Americas Program. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20071211221621/http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3142. Retrieved 2007-12-25. 

External links

• Japan to probe foreigners' crimes BBC, December 2, 2005
• Peruvian Man Admits Killing Japanese Girl CBS, December 1, 2005
• Grief, outrage pour forthat slain schoolgirl's funeral The Japan Times, November 26, 2005
• Hiroshima murder suspect had poor life, broken home in Peru The Japan Times, December 20, 2005
• Slain girl's dad wants details of crime reported The Japan Times, June 27, 2006
• Femicide On the Rise in Latin America Americas Program, March 8, 2006
• Report on the murder
• Taipei Times article on child murder rates.