<figure id="attachment_458303" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-458303" style="width: 2092px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0fd3f3d7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/f9f2a2ef1901aeb13494ba834717973e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-458303" class="wp-caption-text">Defendant Atsumi moving in a convoy shortly after his arrest.&#8217; December 2011, photo taken.</figcaption></figure>
<p> The arguments of the prosecution and the defense were in direct conflict.</p>
<p> This was the case at the first trial of Ryoma Atsumi, 33, a waterproofing engineer accused of murder and abandoning a corpse, held at the Tokyo District Court on February 18. In June 2011, Atsumi is alleged to have stabbed to death a female office worker he was dating (18 at the time) and dumped her body in a forest.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The prosecution claims that the two had been dating since around March 2011, but their relationship deteriorated just before the incident when Ms. A suggested they break up. Atsumi allegedly contacted Ms. A and told her that he wanted to return the money, and after putting her in the car he was driving, he killed her in the car. Atsumi called his high school friend B (convicted of abandoning a corpse) and dumped Ms. A&#8217;s body in a mountain forest in Kosuge Village, Yamanashi Prefecture.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The defense made a completely different accusation. They claimed that B was in the car from the beginning. During an argument, Ms. A took a knife out of her bag, and B tried to stop her and they struggled. The knife accidentally stabbed Ms. A. Atsumi admits to abandoning the body, but he claims he is not guilty of murder, saying that he did not stab the victim.</span></p>
<p> FRIDAY&#8221; reported on the incident in detail in its December 22, 2011 issue, immediately after Atsumi&#8217;s arrest. Atsumi was married at the time of the incident, and we would like to introduce some of his family troubles and horrifying behavior.</p>
<h2> I like people with a punch perm.</h2>
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<p> On November 27, 2011, the decomposed body of Mr. A was found in a mountain forest in Kosuge Village, Yamanashi Prefecture, near Okutama. On December 1, immediately after the body was found, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Atsumi, a resident of Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, who had been in a relationship with Ms. A. On June 7 of the same year, Atsumi was arrested and charged with murder.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The investigation was launched after a missing person&#8217;s report was filed on November 4. From the beginning, the name of the defendant Atsumi, who was dating Ms. A, was on the line of investigation&#8221; (reporter from the society section of a national newspaper).</span></p>
<p> After dropping out of high school in Tokyo, Atsumi lived a life of drinking in his hometown while moving from job to job. About two years before the incident occurred, he married an older woman he met at an izakaya. However, they had been living separately for about a year, and his wife had returned to her hometown in Kyushu.</p>
<p> In May, Atsumi told his relatives that he and Ms. A had started dating. At that time, he also boasted to his relatives that &#8220;(Mr. A) told me that he likes people with a punch perm.</p>
<p> Atsumi was well-liked at work and in bars, but on the other hand, he was also sloppy with money. One of Atsumi&#8217;s relatives revealed the following.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I was renting a parking lot to Ryoma, and he was often late in paying the fees. Ryoma worked as a plumber. Since he was a one-person household, he did not have a fixed monthly income.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> When he saved up enough money from a certain amount of work, he would go to work every day, and when he ran out of money, he would go back to work. Ryoma contacted me once and said, &#8216;I will pay for the parking lot,&#8217; but I did not come to pay. After that, I couldn&#8217;t get in touch with him, so I thought something was wrong. &#8230;&#8230; I had no idea he was causing trouble.&#8221;</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" &#39;Once I got angry,&#39; he said. ......"></div>
<h2>No matter who the other party was.&#8221;</h2>
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<p> The testimony of acquaintances reveals Atsumi&#8217;s horrifying behavior. It seems that he had caused violent incidents in the past that resulted in serious injuries to his family.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He said, &#8220;I once got into a fistfight with his wife and broke her arm. His wife is a strong person, so she fought back, but it is natural that she would get hurt if a man hit her. Once Ryoma&#8217;s anger ignites, no matter who the opponent is, his character is such that he will say, &#8216;You son of a bitch.</span></p>
<p> Atsumi was quite smitten with Ms. A, who was more than a year older than him, and at one point set a picture of himself and her cheek to cheek as their LINE profile picture. Ms. A, on the other hand, reportedly told people around her just before the incident that she wanted to break up with him because he was too persistent. As their relationship progressed, it seems that a big gap developed between them.</p>
<p> Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa explains.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I covered the case myself, and it seems that Ms. A was a cheerful woman who was well-liked by everyone. If the indictment is true, it can be said that the defendant committed the crime out of selfishness. If he called the woman, killed her in the car, and then dumped her body, it would seem that he planned to do so. There is no sign of remorse for the loss of a human life.</span></p>
<p> According to the prosecution, Atsumi&#8217;s smartphone contained a video of Ms. A&#8217;s body in the car.</p>
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 Shinji Hasuo

 There was the first trial of a man who allegedly stabbed an 18-year-old girlfriend to death and dumped her body. At the time of the incident, the man was married but separated; he was in love with the 18-year-old woman but she wanted to leave him. Here are the defendant's horrifying words and deeds.

Stabbed to death an 18-year-old woman who told him she wanted to break up with him because he was &#8220;persistent&#8221;&#8230;33-year-old defendant who pleaded not guilty &#8220;beat and broke his wife&#8221; and said horrifying things.

Stabbed to death an 18-year-old woman who told him she wanted to break up with him because he was “persistent”…33-year-old defendant who pleaded not guilty “beat and broke his wife” and said horrifying things.

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