Junko Furuta must have suffered greatly before her life was cruelly cut short by four teenage boys responsible for her abduction and torture. It’s difficult to comprehend their acts of brutality.
Hiroshi Miyano, Nobuharu Minato, Kamisaku Jo and Yasushi Watanabe first abducted her in 1988 and took her back to Minato’s house where they subjected her to unspeakable acts of cruelty.
How She Was Kidnapped
Junko Furuta was riding her bicycle home from part-time work when she was suddenly kidnapped. Although Junko had no criminal background and was known as an upstanding student at school who did not drink or smoke, her kidnapper did not leave any trace behind him and went ahead with their plan to abduct her.
Hiroshi Miyano was a teenager who kidnapped and assaulted the victim. A known member of a gang, he took her along with three other teenage boys to a park and assaulted her raped her repeatedly before leaving with their ransom payment.
Once she had been abducted, they took her into one of the men involved and brought her into his home where they would torture her for 44 days.
“They raped her over 100 times, used lighter fuel to ignite her legs and feet, used hot wax on her eyes, stuck sowing needles in her breasts, used pliers to remove her left nipple, dropped iron barbells on her torso, inserted foreign objects into her vagina and anus, causing severe pain, burns, and injuries,” according to one account of events.
How She Was Tortured
Junko Furuta was abducted and sexually assaulted by four teenage boys – Shinji Minato, Hiroshi Miyano, Jo Ogura, and Yasushi Watanabe – for 44 days in November 1988.
Over three days of terror, she was raped more than 500 times by a group of individuals using iron bars, scissors, fireworks and lightbulbs to force themselves into her vagina and anus. They also grilled chicken skewers over her pubic hair twisted it twisted her pubic hair burned her breasts with lighters forced her to consume live cockroaches for sustenance.
As well as being raped, she was severely beaten with dumbells, iron rods and golf clubs. Additionally, she was forced to sleep on a balcony without clothes on, had urine urinated over her, was hung from a ceiling and used as a punching bag, had her left nipple pulled off with pliers – an act which inflicted permanent physical injury on the woman and led to hours in a freezer before her body finally surrendered and eventually expired from all this brutal torture.
In January 1989, all four boys were arrested and given light sentences by Japanese juvenile courts which prioritize rehabilitation over retributive justice.
How She Died
Junko Furuta was a Japanese schoolgirl known for being kind to others and refraining from smoking or drinking alcohol – qualities which made her one of the most sought-after classmates at her school.
Hiroshi Miyano had been boasting about his yakuza connections among his classmates. When she rejected his proposal, however, Miyano and Shinji Minato came back out the next day and preyed upon unsuspecting women at a nearby park.
Junko was abducted and taken captive at Minato’s house for 44 days where she was sexually abused and assaulted by more than 100 men and boys, including some she didn’t even know existed.
At least ten times she was raped; these individuals also used scissors, bottles, hot exploding light bulbs, roasting needles and iron bars to insert themselves into her vagina and anus for further abuse. We can only imagine the agony she endured during that ordeal.
On January 4, 1989, her captors murdered her by beating and malnutrition, before placing her body into a 55-gallon drum filled with concrete for disposal in an adjacent neighborhood.
Final Words
Junko furuta was a well-liked, attractive teenager who did not drink or smoke. As she neared graduation from high school and prepared to launch her professional life with full time employment after that experience was about to arrive, Junko furuta took full advantage of every moment and opportunity she could.
But she would suffer further tragedy: in November 1988, four male teenagers kidnapped and tortured her for forty days.
Over that period, she was repeatedly raped and sodomized with a bottle. Additionally, she was locked up in a basement where the boys used her as a punching bag against each other.
During her ordeal, she attempted to call the police but the boys took away her phone before she could speak a word. Additionally, they used lighter fuel on her legs and feet, burnt her eyelids with hot wax, crushed her fingers, poured lighter fuel onto them all, poured lighter fuel on them all as well as pouring lighter fuel on them all and pouring lighter fuel on her legs and feet before hanging up without answering their calls.
Junko endured a nightmare before her violent death haunted Japan for many years to come. Hiroshi Miyano, Shinji Minato, Kamisaku Jo, and Yasushi Watanabe, her murderers have since been found guilty but were given relatively light sentences by Japanese courts for their crimes.