<figure id="attachment_247602" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1024px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-247602"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6a888c36"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/06/2022060209260.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-247602" class="wp-caption-text">A wooded area where the body of a female teacher was buried (PHOTO: Kyodo News)</figcaption></figure>
<p>This was an unusual verdict.</p>
<p>On January 11, the Sapporo High Court reversed the first trial court ruling, stating that the court &#8220;reached its conclusion without considering the psychological condition of the victim. The court sent the case back to the district court.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The case involved the murder of Asako Miyata, a former high school teacher in Obihiro City, Hokkaido, by strangling her by a seatbelt. According to the prosecution, Katagiri promised to divorce his wife and started an affair around 2006. When his child was born, he began to think about ending the relationship.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On the other hand, the defense&#8217;s argument showed that Katagiri was in a difficult situation. He refused to dissolve the relationship, and at the most, Mr. Miyata called him more than 600 times a day. The separation became complicated, and he was threatened that he would kill his wife and baby if he did not divorce her. At the first trial, the defendant was convicted of murder by consent and sentenced to six years and six months in prison.</span></p>
<p>In an article distributed on June 9, 2010, &#8220;FRIDAY Digital&#8221; reported in detail on Katagiri&#8217;s bogged-down affair, which resulted in the worst possible outcome. We would like to recount the details of the incident and the relationship between the two (some corrections have been made).</p>
<h2>My wife hasn&#8217;t come home.</h2>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> I&#8217;m going to Kushiro.&#8221;</span></p>
<p>The woman told her husband and children that she was going to Kushiro, and drove away. However, she was found not in Kushiro, but in Obihiro, about 150 km to the east. Her body was found under the ground wearing clothes.</p>
<p>Ms. Miyata, who lived in Kitami City, Hokkaido, left her home before noon on May 29, 2010. Until the evening of the same day, she was communicating with her family via SNS, but on the following day, May 30, she could not be reached. Her husband, concerned, called the Hokkaidō police.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> My wife hasn&#8217;t come home. I don&#8217;t know where she is anymore.</span></p>
<p>On the 31st, he filed a missing persons report. When the police interviewed the husband, a man emerged in the line of investigation.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He is the defendant Katagiri. When the police interviewed him voluntarily on June 1, Katagiri admitted that he had met with Ms. Miyata and stated, &#8220;I strangled her to death. He said, &#8220;I strangled her to death. I carried the body in my car and dug a hole with a shovel and buried it.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the presence of Katagiri, the police searched a wooded area in Obihiro City and found Miyata&#8217;s body in the ground. There were marks on his neck as if he had been strangled. The cause of death was asphyxiation. The police arrested Katagiri on suspicion of abandoning the body.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Surprising Reputation of the Defendant"></div>
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<p>In the past, defendant Katagiri and Mr. Miyata were colleagues.&#8217; They worked at different high schools in Hokkaido for six years, from April &#8217;16 to March &#8217;22.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8216;They both seemed to be very popular with students and parents. If there was a student absent for a long period of time, they would be very accommodating and offer advice. They never raised their voices. He was a mild-mannered teacher with a passion for education. From that time on, Ms. Miyata and Mr. Katagiri were well known for their closeness.</span></p>
<p>Why did the two get the worst of it? The trial was sent back to the court, and the trial had to start from scratch again.</p>
<figure id="attachment_247603" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 347px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-247603"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="833e2ed1"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/06/kagaisha.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-247603" class="wp-caption-text">Katagiri allegedly buried the body of his former colleague in the ground. The image has been doctored.)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_247604" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 345px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-247604"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1ce4e67b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/06/higaisha.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-247604" class="wp-caption-text">The deceased Mr. Miyata (from his SNS. The image has been doctored.)</figcaption></figure>
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 Kyodo News

 A trial was returned in the case of a man charged with murdering a female teacher who used to work at the same high school. We look back at the case in detail, in which their relationship ended in the worst possible way when their breakup became complicated.

Tragic Murder and the Dark Unraveling of a Complicated Affair

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