<figure id="attachment_448435" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-448435" style="width: 1191px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e3afd372"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/12/4165214f16d80bdefc495e5d04e24612.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-448435" class="wp-caption-text">Tanaka is accused of drugging several female customers with sleeping pills, having nonconsensual sex with them, and photographing them in a sexual manner.</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Two more victims.</span></h3>
<p> The 54-year-old former cab driver remained silent and stared at Judge Satoko Morotokuji.</p>
<p> After the prosecutor read the indictment, Judge Morotokuji asked her <span class="strongInContent">if there was anything wrong</span><span class="strongInContent">.</span> When the judge further asked, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Are you thinking about it now, or are you not going to answer?&#8221;</span> he slowly turned toward the lawyer on his right, looked at the front again, and mumbled, &#8220;I <span class="strongInContent">&#8216;m thinking about &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;</span> &#8211; a single word.</p>
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<p> On November 25, Satoshi Tanaka, 54, a former cab driver, was convicted of four counts of sexual intercourse, indecency with intent to commit a sexual act, photographing a sexual act, and breaking and entering. On November 25, the Tokyo District Court held the second trial for Tanaka, who is charged with four counts of indecent exposure through nonconsensual sexual intercourse, photographing in a sexual manner, and breaking and entering.</p>
<p> Tanaka was arrested on October 30, 2012 for coma robbery, which led to the discovery of the crime.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Tanaka was once released with his sentence suspended, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which was continuing its investigation, searched his home on December 28, and found that he had committed indecent acts with several women. On December 28, the Metropolitan Police Department, which had been continuing its investigation, searched his home and seized a USB drive containing approximately 3,000 videos and images of him performing indecent acts on multiple women. After analyzing the images and identifying the victims, the police were able to re-arrest him on May 21, 2013, on charges of non-consensual sexual intercourse and other offenses for inducing a drunken Ms. A to take sleeping pills and other drugs to put her into a coma and sexually assaulting her.</span></p>
<p> (A reporter from the national newspaper&#8217;s social section) After repeated arrests and indictments, the three women (Ms. A to Ms. C) were tried in the first trial on October 28. At the second trial on the same day, the indictment and opening statement read by the prosecutor revealed Tanaka&#8217;s horrific crimes against two more women.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Details of the horrific crimes"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Pleaded not guilty by reason of &#8220;insanity.</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In late February &#8217;24, Mr. D, who had been drinking with his girlfriend, got into a cab driven by the defendant together with his girlfriend. After that, only the dating partner got out of the cab, and while the cab was running with only Mr. D in it, the defendant gave him sleeping pills.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> While Mr. D was sleeping under the influence of the drugs, the defendant engaged in sexual intercourse with Ms. D in the cab, which stopped in Chiba Prefecture and Tokyo, and took advantage of her being asleep. During the crime, he also took pictures of Ms. D&#8217;s ID and other information.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In early September &#8217;24, in a cab parked in Minato Ward, Tokyo, while Ms. E was sleeping under the influence of drugs, he engaged in sexual intercourse with her and took advantage of her being under the influence of drugs, etc. to take video of the sexual intercourse with her using his smartphone and took pictures of her body. He also took photographs of Ms. E&#8217;s ID and other documents during the crime.</span></p>
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<p> At the trial, the defense attorney reserved admission of the crimes against Mr. D and Ms. E. However, at the first trial, the defense attorney stated that the crimes against Mr. D and Ms. E were not admitted. However, at the first trial, he pleaded not guilty to the crimes against Mr. A to Mr. C in this way.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I do not dispute the acts described in the indictment. However, I maintain that the defendant was insane at the time of the incident, and that he is not guilty pursuant to Article 39, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code (the provision stating that &#8220;acts of an insane person shall not be punished&#8221;).&#8221;</span></p>
<p> At his first trial, Tanaka also only mumbled in a small voice, blurting out, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; and &#8220;I don&#8217;t remember.</span></p>
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<p> The investigators seized a USB drive from Tanaka&#8217;s home, which contained about 50 sexually explicit images taken after 2008. In addition, Tanaka had taken pictures of the victims&#8217; IDs and other identification when he committed the crimes.</p>
<p> Why does he repeatedly <span class="strongInContent">say &#8220;I don&#8217;t remember&#8221;</span> after committing such a large number of crimes? Above all, was he not impaired in his work as a cab driver when he frequently went insane?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" There was something suspicious on the drive recorder..."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Tanaka&#8217;s &#8220;manipulations&#8221; prior to the crime</span></h3>
<p> Tanaka worked for a number of cab companies over a period of six months to a year. A former colleague who worked with him during that period gave this impression.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He didn&#8217;t seem like the kind of person who would cause trouble. He was serious, quiet, and didn&#8217;t talk much. And he never seemed to cause trouble. He had a pretty face, and at a glance, he looked a year younger. I think she was a little on the nervous side.</span></p>
<p> On the other hand, an official at the cab company where Tanaka worked recalls with a frown, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;After his arrest, the police came to our office several times and it was really hard.</span></p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> He never took a day off, came out consistently, and was very serious about his work. It wasn&#8217;t until the police came to me several times asking if I had stolen customers&#8217; money that I began to think something was wrong. Probably, he was a habitual thief of stealing money since I think he had been coming before he was arrested last October.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He (defendant Tanaka) had good sales. But I later thought that maybe he was using the money he stole from customers who gave him sleeping pills as sales, instead of having customers pay him for the money he made while he was running with the meter on.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> After Tanaka was arrested on October 30 of last year, he noticed something strange.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> After his arrest on October 30 of last year, Tanaka noticed something strange: &#8220;Only when I picked up a female customer, there was a part that was not captured on the drive recorder. The driver&#8217;s recorder shows him getting in the car and sleeping, and then waking up the passenger and calling the police. There is no pause.</span><span class="strongInContent"> He (defendant Tanaka) turned off the drive recorder only when it was inconvenient for him.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> There was no way it would not show up on the video, and even we did not think of turning off the drive recorder in parts, so we did not notice it at first. This kind of thing can only be done by the person himself, of his own volition.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> I wonder if he also <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;doesn&#8217;t remember&#8221;</span> that he carefully cut off the drive recorder only in the areas where the crime was supposed to be recorded.</p>
<p> Tanaka, with a shaved head with gray hair and large round glasses, stared at the courtroom with unfocused eyes, occasionally turning his attention to the audience with slow movements.</p>
<p> As the trial is expected to continue without a statement from Tanaka, one wonders to what extent the truth will be revealed.</p>
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 Nakahira

 A former cab driver who sexually assaulted several female customers by inducing them to take sleeping pills and putting them in a coma was brought to trial. While the defendant stated that he did not remember the incident, interviews with the people involved revealed that he was acting in a manner that could be considered "destroying evidence.

Coma Assault Taxi Driver: 5 Victims… “Insanity” Claimed by the Defendant, “Too Careful” Behavior.

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