犯罪ポスター
Japanese wanted posters are nothing if not graphic. Hung outside
Japanese police boxes (
koban) and in railway stations - the posters show a photograph of the wanted person, their crime and the amount of reward the
Japanese police are offering for information leading to their arrest.
The poster in the photographs has a cross through the image of
Ichihashi Tatsuya, who was finally arrested for the crime of abandoning the body of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a young English teacher found dead in a bath of sand on the balcony of the suspect's apartment near Tokyo.
The text begins "Near You!" and introduces a rogues' gallery of dangerous felons who seem to have been on the posters for years! Dial 110 if you spot one of them!
© JapanVisitor.com
Yahoo Japan Auction ServiceBook a Japanese Hotel with BookingsJapanese FriendsJapan Job SearchTokyo ViceTagsJapan Tokyo Kyoto Nagoya Japanese
市橋達也 リンゼイ・アン・ホーカー
Tatsuya Ichihashi (now 30 years old), the main suspect in the murder of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-year-old English teacher from Britain, has been arrested by the Japanese police in Osaka tonight.
Ichihashi, who has been on the run since the murder, was thought to have had plastic surgery in Nagoya last month, surgey which included lip-thinning and cheek implants.
Earlier this week it came to light from fingerprint analysis that the suspect had worked as a construction worker installing home solar panels in Ibaraki, Osaka for about 14 months until early October. Japanese police believe Ichihashi may have been attempting to escape abroad as he had documents for a pending passport application and an English-Japanese phrasebook in his company dormitory.
Ichihashi or "Dai-chan" as he was known to co-workers left the company on October 11. His former colleagues related how he never removed his hat, always bathed alone and had an aversion to being photographed.
Ichihashi was picked up at Osaka port at around 6pm while waiting for a ferry to Okinawa.
© JapanVisitor.com
Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Book a Japanese Hotel with Bookings
Japanese Friends
Japan Job Search
Tags
Japan crime Tatsuya Ichihashi Lindsay Ann Hawker plastic surgery
市橋達也 リンゼイ・アン・ホーカー
On 24 March 2007, Tatsuya Ichihashi (now 30 years old), a physical fitness freak loner living in Chiba, supported by his rich parents, brutally murdered Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-year-old English teacher from Britain and put her body in a sand and compost-filled bathtub on his balcony. Ichihashi escaped from the group of nine Japanese police who had gathered outside his apartment to question him by running away barefoot, and since then, in spite of being on a nationwide wanted list with 10 million yen on his head (c. USD110,000, GBP65,000), the Japanese police have been unable to find him.
However, a breakthrough was announced this week. A doctor at a hospital in Nagoya brought it to police attention that a plastic surgery patient treated in late October was probably Ichihashi. While suspicion had not been raised at the time of surgery, the next day when processing the documentation, the doctor had noticed a scar from previous plastic surgery on the patient where a mole unusual in a male had been removed.
The police have just released before and after photos of Ichihashi. The sharp-eyed, reasonably good-looking slayer has transformed himself into what looks like a low-browed Neanderthal halfwit.
Rumors that he had escaped to the Philippines, a well known refuge of Japanese criminals, are obviously unfounded.
How is he managing to survive, and how is he paying (in cash) the hundreds of thousands of yen required for multiple instances of plastic surgery? Are the police monitoring possible communication between him and his rich parents? (Dad’s a doctor, mom’s a dentist.) Japan is a very difficult place to hide. The physical size of the place means you can’t travel far, there are police everywhere, no shortage of security cameras, whatever you do when it comes to anything remotely official requires ID, and Ichihashi’s photo is prominently displayed at almost every police box (or koban) in the country. (They even have an artist’s impression of Ichihashi in drag!) Perhaps this new mugshot will see overdue justice done soon.
Any sightings of Ichihashi should be reported to the police at 047 397 0110.
© JapanVisitor.com
Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Book a Japanese Hotel with Bookings
Japanese Friends
Japan Job Search
Tags
Japan crime Tatsuya Ichihashi Lindsay Ann Hawker plastic surgery
市橋達也
The search for
Ichihashi Tatsuya, the prime suspect in the murder of 22-year-old English teacher, Lindsay Ann Hawker, continues but with no further leads in the case.
The naked body of Ms Hawker, who worked for the former Nova English conversation school franchise, was found buried in a bathtub of sand on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Ichikawa, near Tokyo. Ms Hawker is thought to have been killed on March 25, 2007.
It comes as no real surprise that the
Japanese police have been unable to locate Ichihashi. Murder inquiries in Japan are not pursued vigorously after the initial 3 months of a case. Adding to the police's embarrassment in this investigation is the fact that Ichihashi managed to escape in his stockinged feet from no less than 9 policemen, who called at his apartment to question the suspect. Other unsolved high profile murder cases include the suspect in the stabbing death of a
Chuo University teacher earlier this year.
Hawker and Ichihashi met for an English conversation class on Sunday March 25 in a cafe near Gyotoku subway station not far from Ms Hawker's home and were captured on CCTV ordering drinks. Ichihashi and Hawker were at the cafe from around 9am-9.45am before leaving, apparently for Ichihashi's condominium.
New wanted posters issued on the first anniversary of Lindsay's murder appear at
police boxes (koban) around the country and on
Tokyo subway stations, showing Ichihashi with dyed orange hair and made up as a woman wearing a wig. The blurb on the poster mentions Ichihashi's distinctively thick eyebrows.
Translations from the Japanese press on the Lindsay Ann Hawker caseThe Hawker family have set up a
Lindsay Anne Hawker webpage to help track down her killer.
TagsJapan Tokyo Crime Ichihashi Tatsuya Lindsay Ann Hawker
