Playback ’95] Sitting on the Street in Ebisubashi… “Murder of a Homeless Man in Dotonbori, Osaka” Two Days Before the Crime

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we revisit the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will introduce “Osaka homeless murderer” who went to the Dotonbori River “just for the fun of it,” as captured on Ebisu Bridge two days before the crime, in the November 10, 1995 issue.

On October 18, 1995, a shocking incident occurred at Ebisu Bridge in Chuo-ku, Osaka, when a homeless man was thrown into the Dotonbori River by a group of three youths and killed. This article reports on the incident and the suspects who were arrested. (The descriptions in parentheses are taken from past articles, and all characters are given by their real names in past articles.)

A homeless elderly man was taken 5 meters down to the Dotonbori River.

FRIDAY reported the following details of the incident at the time it occurred.

Three men wandering around Ebisu Bridge in Minami, Osaka, poked an elderly homeless man who was sleeping wrapped in a blanket on a handcart with a fallen iron pipe. The old man remained cowering, unresisting. The men pulled the cart to the center of the bridge and began rocking it back and forth and spinning it around.

When the old man tried to get up, the two men grabbed him by the hands and feet and threw him into the Dotonbori River about 5 meters below. Laughing, the three men descended to the river, but the old man did not float back up. But the old man did not float up. A passerby shouted, “Notify the police,” and the men ran away.

The deceased was Mr. A, 63, a scrap metal collector. Arrested by October 21 on suspicion of murder were X (24), an unemployed man from Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture, and Y (25), a former company employee from Izumi City. The three, including a former waiter who was with them at the time of the crime and was questioned, “threw Ms. A into the river for fun” (X’s statement in the police report at the time) when they happened to meet on a bridge.

Two days after the incident, on the 20th, Y was arrested while sleeping in a park in Settsu City, and on the following day, X was arrested by a policeman on patrol in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo. X, who had dyed his hair blonde, was said to have snored and fallen asleep on the bullet train that was escorting him home.

He was selling cigarettes on the street at a discount.

The magazine had obtained a photograph of X two days before the crime. The article describes the photograph as follows

X is selling cigarettes at a discount on Ebisubashi Bridge, the same street where the crime took place. X told a customer that he had taken the cigarettes from a pachinko machine, but after his arrest, he stated that he had been vandalizing vending machines, and that the cigarettes may have been stolen.

For a time, X worked at a host club near the site, but his working hours varied and he was fired after six months. He calls himself “Zero,” which means “I want to start from zero.

The victim, Ms. A, lived on a handcart collecting cardboard boxes. His income was about 500 yen a day. After the incident, an altar was built at Ebisu Bridge, where Mr. A’s friends joined hands. One of the waste collection associates spoke about Mr. A. He said, “Six months ago, I was in Kamagasaki.

He said, “Six months ago, he was working in Kamagasaki in the construction business, but I heard that he came to Minami because he could no longer work due to a bad leg. Every day when he received money, he would buy shochu and drink it with his friends. He was a quiet and gentle man.

The incident occurred at 8:30 in the morning. There were many passersby in the area, but not a single person tried to stop X and the others.

Finding that he did not “throw” her into the river.

On November 12, 1995, X was charged with manslaughter. Two months before the incident, Mr. A had resisted him when he was teasing a homeless man. While X admitted the fact of the indictment, Y, who was indicted for the same crime on the 11th, said , “I never picked up Mr. A or threw him into the river. He also denied all allegations of collusion.

The trial court, in the first trial, fully accepted the prosecution’s allegations and concluded that X and Y lifted Ms. A up and threw her off a bridge. However, in the second trial in June 1999, the court accepted X’s claim that he shook off Ms. A’s hand, which was clinging to his, and as a result, she fell into the river. The first-instance verdict of six years in prison was reversed, and X was sentenced to four years in prison, and Y was acquitted in March 2000.

X had a pre-existing seizure disorder since childhood, had been bullied at school since elementary school, and did not do well in the workplace. He also suffered from a lack of a place in society, as he was not hired because of his illness even when he was looking for a job.

After entering society, X kept moving from job to job, but finally found a place where he belonged: Ebisubashi. Today, Ebisubashi is known as “Grishita” where young people with nowhere to go gather, but even back then it was a hangout for runaway girls and unemployed boys in the same situation as X. They were called “bridge children. X, who was able to meet a group of people he could relate to for the first time, was said to have treated the homeless kindly, even sharing food with them. However, as he felt self-denial during the days of endless joblessness, he eventually developed a fierce hatred for the homeless.

In a memoir he wrote in jail, X described his feelings toward the homeless as follows

One day I suddenly developed a hatred for the homeless. I kicked them, spat on them, and pressed my cigarette against them. I wondered why they were okay with being drenched by the rain and having no food. I envied the fact that I could live without dreams and hopes, but it didn’t seem like a human way of life. So I told myself, “I have dreams and hope!” I told myself, “I have dreams and hope! I really hated myself for being envious, and I was sad.

The number of assaults on homeless people peaked in the early 2000s and has since declined. The number of assaults on the homeless peaked in the early 2000s and has declined since then. However, this does not mean that the assaults themselves have disappeared. In 2008, an 81-year-old homeless man living on the banks of the Nagara River in Gifu Prefecture was murdered, and five people, including a boy, were arrested.

The despicable act of the weak beating the even weaker has not changed in 30 years.