A girl’s bar waitress “assaulted and murdered a man she did not know until morning” in a horrifying crime.

I assaulted him until the next morning.

Murata testified in Tokyo District Court on November 7 in the first trial of a man accused of beating an unacquainted man to death over a long period of time. The man charged was Keiji Murata, 32, a former girls’ bar employee in Minato Ward, Tokyo. Murata is alleged to have attacked and killed Hisakazu Tanaka, then 50, a temporary worker living in Kita-ku, Tokyo.

The incident occurred in May of this year. Based on an article in “FRIDAY Digital” (May 30, 2011; content has been partially revised), we would like to look back on the horrific crime. The following is a retrospective look back at the crime.

On May 26, Murata was re-arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Investigation Division 1. Shortly after 7:30 a.m. on May 18, Murata was inside a convenience store near JR Shimbashi Station in Tokyo, when he asked Ms. Tanaka, whom he did not know, “What are you looking at? and he taunted Ms. Tanaka, whom he had never met before. When Mr. Tanaka made a gesture as if to look back at him, the defendant punched him repeatedly. The next day, on the 19th, he was arrested on suspicion of assault.

Mr. Tanaka received a strong blow to the head and suffered fractures around his eyes and the bridge of his nose. At the hospital where he was taken, he is confirmed dead. The cause of death was a brain herniation associated with acute subdural hematoma.

A sake bottle with sticky blood on it was found at ……

Murata’s assault on Tanaka was not limited to the convenience store. Security camera footage shows Murata forcibly taking Ms. Tanaka to a girls’ bar about 100 meters away where he worked. The gruesome crime continued at the girls’ bar.

Murata told the police, “I had a problem with a man. ‘I got into trouble with a man. I took him to the restaurant where I work, but he was drunk, so I don’t know the cause of the trouble. It is clear that Ms. Tanaka was severely assaulted at the girls’ bar as well. Not only were the light fixtures broken and there were blood stains in the bar. They also found Ms. Tanaka’s teeth and a bottle of sake with blood stained on it.

Furthermore, Murata was sound asleep in the store after assaulting Tanaka. When he woke up, Mr. Tanaka was unconscious. Murata also stated, “When I woke up, I found a man lying on the floor. When I woke up, the man was limp. （I thought it would be faster to carry him to the hospital by myself (than to call 119), so I went to the hospital.)

Murata transported Ms. Tanaka to Hiroo Hospital in Shibuya Ward in the car he was driving. More than 10 hours had already passed since the trouble at the convenience store. After leaving Ms. Tanaka in his care, Murata left the hospital.

The security camera footage immediately brought Murata to the forefront of the investigation. He had been drinking with his friends who worked at a restaurant until morning, and in a drunken stupor, he made false accusations against Mr. Tanaka and killed him.

Mr. Tanaka had a calm personality and never caused any trouble at his temporary workplace. On the day of the incident, he was scheduled to assist at a new type of coronavirus vaccination site. He probably stopped by a convenience store before meeting at Shimbashi Station at 8:00 a.m.

Murata was drunk when he assaulted and killed a stranger over a long period of time. After a trial, he is expected to serve a heavy sentence.