Murder of Junko Furuta

In July 2004, Ogura was arrested for assaulting Takatoshi Isono, an acquaintance he thought his girlfriend may have been involved with. Ogura tracked Isono down, beat him, and shoved him into his truck. Ogura drove Isono from Adachi to his mother's bar in Misato, where he allegedly beat Isono for four hours. During that time, Ogura repeatedly threatened to kill the man, telling him that he had killed before and knew how to get away with it. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for assaulting Isono and has since been released. Ogura's mother allegedly vandalized Furuta's grave, stating the dead girl had ruined her son's life.

Miyano was denied parole in 2004. He was released from prison in 2009. In January 2013, Miyano was re-arrested for fraud. Due to insufficient evidence, he was released without charge later that month. Nobuharu Minato (now Shinji Minato), who originally received a four-to-six-year sentence, was re-sentenced to five to nine years by Judge Ryūji Yanase upon appeal. He was 16 at the time of the murder. Minato's parents and brother were not charged.

Yasushi Watanabe, who was originally sentenced to three to four years in prison, received an upgraded sentence of five to seven years. He was 17 at the time of the murder. For his role in the crime, Jō Ogura served eight years in a juvenile prison before he was released in August 1999. After his release, he took the family name "Kamisaku" when he was adopted by a supporter. He is said to have boasted about his role in the kidnapping, rape and torture of Furuta.

At least three books have been written about the crime. An exploitation film, Joshikōsei konkurīto-zume satsujin-jiken [ja] (女子高生コンクリート詰め殺人事件), about the incident was directed by Katsuya Matsumura in 1995. Yujin Kitagawa (later a member of the music duo Yuzu) played the role of the principal culprit, and Mai Sasaki played the role of Furuta. The case was also the inspiration for the film Concrete in 2004, and the manga 17-sai.

The identities of the defendants were sealed by the court as they were all juveniles at the time of the crime. Journalists from the Shūkan Bunshun (週刊文春) magazine uncovered their identities and published them on the grounds that, given the severity of the crime, the accused did not deserve to have their right to anonymity upheld. All four defendants pled guilty to "committing bodily injury that resulted in death," rather than murder. In July 1990, a lower court sentenced Hiroshi Miyano, the leader of the crime, to 17 years in prison. He appealed his sentence, but Tokyo High Court judge Ryūji Yanase sentenced him to an additional three years in prison. The 20-year sentence is the second-longest sentence given in Japan before life imprisonment. He was 18 years old at the time of Furuta's murder. After his release, Minato moved in with his mother. However, in 2018, Minato was arrested again for attempted murder after beating a 32-year-old man with a metal rod and slashing his throat with a knife.

On 4 January 1989, after losing a game of mahjong against another person the night before, Miyano decided to take his anger out on Furuta by pouring lighter fluid on her body and setting her on fire. Furuta allegedly made attempts to put out the fire, but gradually became unresponsive. They continued to punch her, ignited a candle and dripped hot wax on her face, placed two short candles on her eyelids, and forced her to drink her own urine. After she was kicked, she fell onto a stereo unit and collapsed into a fit of convulsions. Since she was bleeding profusely, and pus was emerging from her infected burns, the four boys covered their hands in plastic bags. They continued to beat her and dropped an iron exercise ball onto her stomach several times. The attack reportedly lasted two hours. Furuta eventually succumbed to her wounds and died.

On 23 January 1989, Miyano and Ogura were arrested for the gang-rape of the 19-year-old girl whom they had kidnapped in December. On 29 March, two police officers came to interrogate them, as women's underwear had been found at their addresses. During the interrogation, Miyano believed that one of the officers was aware of his culpability in Furuta's murder. Thinking that Jō Ogura had confessed to the crimes against Furuta, Miyano told the police where to find Furuta's body. The police were initially puzzled by the confession, as they had been referring to the murder of a different woman and her seven-year-old son that had occurred nine days prior to Furuta's abduction, a case which remains unsolved.

The police found the drum containing Furuta's body the following day. She was identified via fingerprints. On 1 April 1989, Ogura was arrested for a separate sexual assault, and subsequently re-arrested for Furuta's murder. The arrest of Watanabe, Minato, and Minato's brother followed. Several other accomplices who participated in abusing and raping Furuta were officially identified, including Tetsuo Nakamura and Koichi Ihara, who were charged with rape after their DNA was found on and inside the victim's body.

Junko Furuta's funeral was held on 2 April 1989. One of her friends' memorial address stated:

Junko Furuta (古田 順子, Furuta Junko) was a Japanese high school student who was abducted, raped, tortured and then subsequently murdered. Her case was called the "concrete-encased high school girl murder case" (女子高生コンクリート詰め殺人事件), due to her body being discovered in a concrete drum. The abuse was mainly perpetrated by four male teenagers (Hiroshi Miyano, Jō Ogura, Shinji Minato, and Yasushi Watanabe) over a period of 40 days from 25 November 1988 to 4 January 1989. The crime has been described as the worst case of juvenile delinquency in post-war Japan. The perpetrators' sentences ranged from juvenile detention to 20 years in prison.

Furuta was born in Misato, Saitama Prefecture. She lived with her parents, her older brother, and her younger brother. As a teenager, she attended Yashio-Minami High School, and worked part-time at a plastic molding factory during after-school hours since October 1988. She did this to save up money for a graduation trip she had planned. Furuta also accepted a job at an electronics retailer, where she planned on working after graduation.

On 25 November 1988, Miyano and Minato wandered around Misato with the intention of robbing and raping local women. At 8:30 p.m., they spotted Furuta riding her bike home after she had finished a shift at her job. Under Miyano's orders, Minato kicked Furuta off her bike and fled the scene. Miyano, under the pretense of witnessing the attack by coincidence, approached Furuta and offered to walk her home safely.

Miyano, the leader of the crime, had a history of problematic behavior since elementary school, such as shoplifting and damaging school property. In April 1986, he enrolled in a private high school in Tokyo, though he dropped out the following year. After this, he continued to commit several crimes that escalated over time. At the time of the crime, he had been living with his girlfriend, the older sister of Boy D, Yasushi Watanabe, and was working as a tile worker to save up money to marry her. Dissatisfied with the job's low pay, Miyano became involved with a gangster and frequently committed sex crimes. This delinquent behavior consequently made his girlfriend lose interest in him and end their relationship.