Kuniko Inoguchi’s Fire Scene Shadow Image Made Unavailable After Family Complaints

Many people must have felt a tightness in their chest when watching the footage.

On November 27, a fire broke out in the residence of Kanako Inokuchi, a 72-year-old member of the House of Councillors, in a condominium in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. The top floor of the six-story building was engulfed in flames. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police announced on December 1 that the deceased were Inokuchi’s husband, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Takashi (age 80), and their eldest daughter (age 33).

“The scene was in a narrow street, and the ladder truck couldn’t get through. For about 30 minutes, we couldn’t do anything but watch the fire spread right in front of us. The firefighters and the local residents must have felt terrible. Despite the efforts of 37 fire trucks and other vehicles to extinguish the flames, the room that was on fire was surrounded by the rooftop balcony, so the water couldn’t reach the interior of the room effectively. The air was dry, and the wind was strong at the time. In the end, it took nearly eight hours to put out the fire,” said a television station reporter.

The following day, the Nippon Television network aired the program Miyane-ya.

The family consisted of four members, and at the time of the incident, both Member of Parliament Inokuchi and her younger daughter were out. The security cameras of the apartment building recorded the moments about two hours before the fire started, showing Mr. Takashi Inokuchi and the eldest daughter returning separately to the building. No signs of a third-party intruder were found.

In the midst of this, a controversial segment aired the following day on the Nippon Television network’s Miyane-ya (produced by Yomiuri Television). The footage aired under the label viewer-supplied showed a figure, possibly a woman, holding a plastic bottle amidst the raging flames. What the person was doing and who they were remained unclear, yet the footage was aired without further context.

 

 

A complaint was made by someone claiming to be a relative.

The behind-the-scenes story was revealed by a person affiliated with NTV.

“After ‘Miyaneya’ was broadcast, a complaint came from someone claiming to be a relative. They asked us to stop using the footage. The senior executives at the news department held an emergency meeting. However, we also considered that the footage could be an important piece of evidence. The liquid in the plastic bottle—was it water or a flammable substance? If it was something like gasoline, there could be a possibility of arson.”

Taking the family’s wishes into account, it was decided to use the footage only on that day and not thereafter. The next day, a notice was sent out by the head of NTV’s social department to all NNN-affiliated stations, stating that the footage would no longer be used. No oil-like substance was found at the scene, so the footage, along with the viewer-provided footage, was aired on programs like news every. (NTV affiliate)

The shocking footage was no longer allowed to be used, but a wide-shoe industry insider said:

“Actually, there might have been a sad story behind it.”

The statement was made by a person in the wide-shoe industry.

“The shadow of the woman in the footage could have been the daughter, and if so, the father, Professor Takashi, an international political scientist, may have been left inside the burning house. It is said that Takashi had difficulty walking and lived in a wheelchair. If the daughter was on the balcony, she might have tried to jump to the lower floor as a last-ditch effort. However, in the end, both were found collapsed in the kitchen. It’s possible the daughter went back to help her disabled father. Normally, no one would choose to go back into a burning house, but after watching that footage, I thought that might have been the case.”

Indeed, while the footage is shocking, it contains information about how people may have moved. Whether to air it as is would likely be a decision for the TV station.