Junko Furuta & Taion Lyrics

On November 25, 1988, four boys, including Jō Kamisaku, then 17 (Kamisaku was a new family name he took after being released from prison), abducted and held Furuta, a third-year high school (12th grade) student from Misato, Saitama Prefecture, for 44 days. They kept her captive in the house owned by the parents of Kamisaku, located in the Ayase district of Adachi, Tokyo.

To forestall a manhunt, one of them forced Furuta into calling her own parents and telling them that she had run away from home, but was with "a friend" and was not in danger. He also browbeat her into posing as the girlfriend of one of the boys when his (Kamisaku's) parents were around, but when he was sure they would not call the police, he dropped the pretext. Furuta tried to escape several times, begging the parents to help her, but they did nothing, apparently out of fear that Yokoyama would hurt them. Yokoyama was at the time a low-level yakuza leader and had bragged that he could use his connections to kill anyone who interfered. 

According to their statements at their trial, the four of them raped her, beat her with metal rods and golf clubs, introduced foreign objects including a light bulb into her vagina, made her eat cockroaches and drink her own urine, inserted fireworks into her anus and set them off, forced Furuta to masturbate, cut her nipple with pliers, dropped dumbbells onto her stomach, and burned her with cigarettes and lighters. One of the burnings was punishment for attempting to call the police. At one point her injuries were so severe that according to one of the boys it took more than an hour for her to crawl downstairs to use the bathroom. They also related that "possibly a hundred different people" knew that Furuta had been imprisoned there, but it is not clear if this means they visited the house at different times while she was imprisoned there, or themselves either raped or abused her. When the boys refused to let her leave, she begged them on several occasions to "kill (her) and get it over with".

On January 4, 1989, using a loss at mah-jong as a pretext, the four beat her with an iron barbell, poured lighter fluid on her legs, arms, face and stomach, and set her on fire. She died later that day of shock. The four boys claimed that they were not aware of how badly injured she was, and that they believed she had been malingering.

On January 5, the killers hid her corpse in a 55-gallon drum filled with cement; the perpetrators disposed the drum in a tract of reclaimed land in Kōtō, Tokyo.

The boys were arrested and tried as adults; but, because of Japanese handling of crimes committed by juveniles, their identities were concealed by the court. However, a weekly magazine Shūkan Bunshun reported their real names, claiming that "human rights aren't needed for brutes." Furuta's real name and details about her personal life were reported exhaustively in the media. Kamisaku was judged as a sub leader, at least according to the official trial.

The four boys pled guilty to a reduced charge of "committing bodily injury that resulted in death", rather than murder. Boy A's parents sold their house for approximately 50 million yen and paid this as compensation to Furuta's family.

For his participation in the crime, Kamisaku served eight years in a juvenile prison before he was released, in August 1999. In July 2004, he was arrested for assaulting an acquaintance, whom he believed to be luring a girlfriend away from him, and allegedly bragged about his earlier infamy. Kamisaku was sentenced to seven years in prison for the beating.

Junko's parents were dismayed by the sentences received by their daughter's killers, and enjoined a civil suit against the parents of the boy in whose home the crimes were committed. When some of the convictions were overturned on the basis of problematic physical evidence (the semen and pubic hair recovered from the body did not match those of the boys who were arrested), the lawyer handling the civil suit decided there was no case to be made and refused to represent them further.

In July 1990 a lower court sentenced the leader to seventeen years in prison. The court sentenced one accomplice to a four to six year term, one accomplice to a three to four year term, and another accomplice to an indefinite five to ten year term. The leader and the first two of the three appealed their rulings. The higher court gave more severe sentences to the three appealing parties. The presiding judge, Ryūji Yanase, said that the court did so because of the nature of the crime, the effect on the victim's family, and the effects of the crime on society. The leader received a twenty year sentence, the second highest possible sentence after life imprisonment. Of the two appealing accomplices, the one that originally got four to six years received a five to nine year term. The other accomplice had his sentence upgraded to a five to seven year term.

In 2006, the Japanese Visual Kei/rock band the GazettE released a song on their album NIL called "Taion" (Body Temperature); the song is a tribute to the girl.

And here is the lyrics:

ROMAJI

A wintry sky and the broken streetlight cold wind.
Unknown shadow the footprint of desertion.
Freedom was taken.

An understanding is impossible.

If it wakes up a gloomy ceiling.
A laughing voice sinks in the eardrum it is soiled.
And violence rapes me.

An understanding is impossible.
Why was I chosen? Someone should answer…

Douka hidoi yumedato kotaetehoshii
Doredake sakebi modae kurusimebaii
Douka hidoi yumedato oshietehoshii
Chigiresouna koede nanndomo sakennda

There is no hand of preparing of the disordered hair.
A laughing voice sinks in the eardrum a faint temperature is mixed in the midwinter.

An understanding is impossible.

Koewo koroshite karesouna jibunni iikikaseteita
Ikirukotowo miushinawanuyou
Koewo koroshite hurueta yoruwa itamini oboreteiku
Togiresouna ikiwo yurushite…

Douka hidoi yumedato kotaetehoshii
Doredake sakebi modae kurusimebaii
Douka hidoi yumedato oshietehoshii
Saigoni mouichidodake warattemitai

ENGLISH

A wintry sky and the broken streetlight cold wind.
Unknown shadow the footprint of desertion.
Freedom was taken.

An understanding is impossible.

If it wakes up a gloomy ceiling.
A laughing voice sinks in the eardrum it is soiled.
And violence rapes me.

An understanding is impossible.
Why was I chosen? Someone should answer…

Please answer me it is a horrible dream.
How much should I shout, writhe and suffer?
Please tell me it is a horrible dream.
I shouted many times with losing voice

There is no hand of preparing of the disordered hair.
A laughing voice sinks in the eardrum a faint temperature is mixed in the midwinter.

An understanding is impossible.

I persuaded myself, who had a dying voice and began writhing.
Not to lose for living.
I was drowned in the night when I feared and had a dying voice.
Please forgive my dying breath.

Please answer me it is a horrible dream.
How much should I shout, writhe and suffer?
Please tell me it is a horrible dream.
I want to smile again at last.

Last words from me:

Please be careful whenever you're going home with or without your friends. Cause the world is starting to turn into a worst nightmare for all of us. And we have to appreciate the life that God has given to us and use it wisely.

R.I.P. Junko-san... I wish you a better life there...