<figure id="attachment_454721" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-454721" style="width: 1063px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ce3f1f44"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/01/a413bf3c6df332e52dc9d688566d7137.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-454721" class="wp-caption-text">Asama Bridge on the Tega River, the scene of the accident. Mr. A was found at the bottom of the river at a depth of about 3 meters (January 22, 2004).</figcaption></figure>
<p> What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In &#8220;Playback Friday,&#8221; we revisit the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we take a look at the January 22, 2004 issue, which was published 10 years ago, in <span class="strongInContent">which four men brutally drowned a 17-year-old boy in the middle of winter in the city of Kashiwa, Chiba</span>.</p>
<p> At around 10:00 a.m. on January 4, the body of Mr. A, then 17, an employee of a construction-related company in Abiko, was discovered at the bottom of the Tega River in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, completely naked. Arrested on suspicion of murder on the following day, the 5th, were X (then 22), a senior employee of Ms. A, Y (then 19), another colleague, W (then 21), a former colleague and unemployed, and Z (then 20), a friend of W&#8217;s. The four were arrested for the murder. Why did the four of them drive Mr. A to his death? (Descriptions in parentheses are quotations from past articles, and ages are those of the time).</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> He was a senior employee who took good care of them.</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> His colleague went into the Tegagawa River and never came back.</span></p>
<p> The four arrested had called 119 early in the morning of the 4th, and the cause of Mr. A&#8217;s death was determined to be drowning, and the four initially told the police that he had dropped his belongings in the river and had drowned while swimming to look for them. They had placed Mr. A&#8217;s clothes on the riverbank to disguise their whereabouts.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> X was known locally as a baseball player, and even entered the prestigious Kisarazu Sogo High School with a baseball recommendation. He took good care of younger students and had a good reputation at his workplace. One of the juniors he particularly cared for was Mr. A. &#8220;Mr. A graduated from junior high school and went to Kisarazu Sogo High School,&#8221; Mr. X said.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> After graduating from junior high school, he started working for us about a year ago. However, his work attitude was not very good. He couldn&#8217;t get up in the morning and was sometimes late or absent without permission. Even so, X drove A-kun home to pick him up, and at one point he even let him live at home.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Why did their relationship change?"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">You have to jump in or it will never end.&#8221;</span></h3>
<p> X told the interrogator, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Two million yen that I had left at home was missing. When I questioned A, he admitted that he had stolen it and promised to return it little by little from his salary.</span> It seems that <span class="strongInContent">X</span> had been <span class="strongInContent">discussing with W and Z that it would be better to &#8220;screw A once&#8221; and so on.</span></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> Then, around noon on January 3, X sent a LINE to Ms. A <span class="strongInContent">saying, &#8220;Where are you now?</span> X sent Ms. A a line saying, &#8220;Where are you now? Mr. A, who was at home, faked that <span class="strongInContent">he was not at home</span>, but Y, who was with Mr. A, contacted X. X was angry that he had been lied to. X, angry at being lied to, invited W and Z to Mr. A&#8217;s house and took them out in his car.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> At around 2:00 a.m. on the 4th, X took Ms. A out in his car and had her jump into a different river than the one where the crime took place. After returning to X&#8217;s home, they went to Sengenbashi Bridge on the Tega River, which was the scene of the crime. There, when Z asked her to choose between falling into the river or being beaten, Ms. A said, &#8220;I&#8217;d rather jump in,&#8221; and stripped completely naked.</span></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> As Mr. A hesitated, X said to him, &#8220;If you don&#8217;t jump in, it won&#8217;t be over.&#8221; As Mr. A climbed over the bridge railing, Y and W took hold of one of his arms and held him suspended above the river, then released his hands. &#8230;&#8230; The temperature that day was about 3 degrees Celsius. When Mr. A did not float, Y called 119 shortly after 6:00 a.m. The incident came to light. The incident came to light.</span></p>
<p> At the time of his arrest, X denied committing the crime <span class="strongInContent">, saying that he was just at the scene of the</span> crime, but the other three admitted the charges.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" At the trial, he denied part of the indictment."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Tragedy Caused by &#8220;Excessive Sanctions</span></h3>
<p> On January 15, 2004, the Chiba District Public Prosecutors Office suspended the murder charges on the <span class="strongInContent">grounds that &#8220;there was insufficient evidence to admit the intent to kill,&#8221;</span> and charged X and Z with manslaughter and W with confinement. Y, who was a minor, was released with his sentence suspended, and W was later sentenced to probation for &#8221; <span class="strongInContent">accessory after the fact&#8221; at</span> trial.</p>
<p> In the trial that began on November 25, 2004, X admitted the facts of the indictment, but Z denied part of it, saying, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;I never told Mr. A to stand outside the parapet of the bridge.</span> The defense argued that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Z did not intend to drop Mr. A into the river&#8221;</span> and that manslaughter was not committed.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> At the trial on December 15, the presiding judge rejected Z&#8217;s argument, saying that Z <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;thought it would be OK if she fell into the</span><span class="strongInContent">river&#8221;</span> when he had Y and W hold her hands while she stood on the bridge railing.</p>
<p> He also rejected Z&#8217;s argument, <span class="strongInContent">saying, &#8220;It is too short-sighted to resort to assault and the like for the sake of sanctions.</span> It <span class="strongInContent">is clear that the</span> two defendants <span class="strongInContent">were motivated by a desire to relieve their own anger or to enjoy the assault itself,&#8221;</span> and sentenced them to eight years in prison.</p>
<p> On the other hand, the court <span class="strongInContent">also stated, &#8220;The fact that they were trying to rescue the drowning victim, rather than trying to ensure that he would fall, suggests that they did not anticipate the possibility of injury as well as death.</span></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> As the article states, X used to take good care of Mr. A among his junior colleagues. Z <span class="strongInContent">also</span> stated at the trial that he had been a childhood friend of Mr. A&#8217;s, and that even before the incident, whenever Mr. A lied or stole money, he had warned him by using violence.</p>
<p> Was there any solution other than violence?</p>


 Shinji Hasuo

 In this issue of Playback, we take a look back at what we reported 10, 20, and 30 years ago. In this issue, we look back at an incident that took place in January 2004: why did four men, who were senior employees and colleagues at a 17-year-old boy, brutally send him to his death?

Playback ’16] “Fly or It’s Over!” Four Men Sanctioned 17-Year-Old Boy for Drowning

Access Ranking