<figure id="attachment_461940" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-461940" style="width: 837px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="9f701421"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/56dde647a16bce88dda55d1c5ca7df2b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-461940" class="wp-caption-text">Defendant Takabari immediately after his arrest in February &#8217;21.</figcaption></figure>
<p> This was an unusual prosecution.</p>
<p> On March 17, the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office charged Jun Takabari, 49, of unknown occupation, with murder. Takabari was arrested in February 2009 for the murder of his wife, Mrs. A (41 at the time), by throwing her down from the ninth floor of an apartment building in Kunitachi City, Tokyo. The following month, the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office released him from custody, but it took five years for him to be charged.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> From the time of his arrest, Takabari denied the charges. However, the Metropolitan Police Department&#8217;s Investigation Division 1 and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office continued to conduct a voluntary investigation even after Takabari&#8217;s release. They obtained opinions from several forensic experts, analyzed security camera footage, and repeatedly conducted experiments to recreate the incident. As a result, it is believed that Mr. A was already unconscious when he fell from the ninth floor of the apartment building, reinforcing the view that someone had dropped him from the balcony and leading to his prosecution.</span></p>
<p> FRIDAY Digital&#8221; reported on the incident in detail immediately after Takabari&#8217;s arrest, and we would like to introduce his marital troubles with Ms. A and his contradictory statements.</p>
<h2> I didn&#8217;t notice because we had a fight.&#8221;</h2>
<p> In the early morning of February 28, 2009, about 10 investigators surrounded the apartment. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., the investigators entered the condominium at once. The target man, dressed in a jumper and sweatshirt, threw a sharp look around him as he emerged from the room without resisting. He is Takabari, the defendant who is alleged to have faked the fall and murdered his wife.</p>
<p> The incident dates back to November 29, 2008.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On the morning of November 30, we received a 110 call from defendant Takabari. He said, &#8220;I went out on the balcony to smoke a cigarette, and found my wife lying on the floor below. I didn&#8217;t notice because we had had a fight the night before. When police and firefighters rushed to the scene, they found the body of a woman who had probably fallen from the ninth-floor balcony. As a result of the autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be multiple fractures caused by a hard blow to the chest,&#8221; said a reporter from the society section of a national newspaper.</span></p>
<p> The deceased was Takachari&#8217;s wife, Mrs. A. When the police investigated, Takabari initially explained, &#8220;My wife had a child-rearing neurosis. He said that his wife had a child-rearing neurosis and that she committed suicide. However, &#8230;&#8230;.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The police found a series of cases that contradicted Takabari&#8217;s claims. When we examined the body, we found marks on the neck as if the victim had been strangled, and slight bleeding on the eyelids as if the victim had suffocated. No fingerprints or fiber marks were found on the balcony railing.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Furthermore, it is known that the day before the incident, Ms. A had purchased a ticket to watch an online video of an idol group member. Would someone who is contemplating taking his own life buy a ticket the day before?&#8221; (Id.)</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;critical testimony&quot; denies the defendant&#39;s allegations."></div>
<h2>They&#8217;re so picky about money!&#8221;</h2>
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<p> When a reporter interviewed the family in the area at the time, a neighbor told him the following.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The family has a little girl. I often saw the mother (referring to Mr. A) holding the girl happily. She didn&#8217;t look like she was having a hard time raising her child. However, she was constantly fighting with her husband. He would yell at her, &#8220;Shut up about money! I once heard her husband yelling at her, &#8216;Shut up about the money!</span></p>
<p> A former reporter from the social affairs section continued.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The defendant, Takabari, was in a great deal of debt. In order to repay his debts, he would sometimes dip into Ms. A&#8217;s savings. This was probably the cause of the constant trouble between the couple. Just before the incident, Ms. A contacted her mother to the effect of, &#8220;I got into a fight with Jun, and now we&#8217;re getting a divorce. I&#8217;m scared. The police suspect that, as a result of the breakup, Takabari may have strangled her, knocked her unconscious, and then pushed her down from the ninth floor.</span></p>
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<p> Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa explains.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Since there is no indictment, the investigation can continue even after the suspect is released from prison, but the indictment after five years will not be prosecuted. However, the indictment after five years would be an unusually long time, and it seems that the police and prosecutors have become more aggressive in investigating past crimes since the suspect was arrested last October for the murder of a woman in Nagoya in 1999.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The fact that the authorities have decided to prosecute the defendant, who continues to deny the charges in this case, must indicate that they have confidence in the case. The fact that the authorities decided to prosecute the defendant, who has continued to deny the allegations, suggests that they are confident in their decision to prosecute him.</span></p>
<p> The indictment came five years after his release. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, Tachikawa Branch commented, &#8220;We conducted the investigation in light of the importance of the murder case.</p>


 Kyodo News

 Indictment comes five years after his release from prison. A 49-year-old man is charged with murder. He allegedly faked a fall and threw his wife off the ninth floor of their apartment building. FRIDAY Digital" reported the incident in detail immediately after his arrest. Here is the man's contradictory story.

Faked fall, saying he was neurotic about raising his child&#8230; Indicted 5 years after his release&#8230; &#8220;Did he throw his wife down from the 9th floor?&#8221; contradictory statements by the man.

Faked fall, saying he was neurotic about raising his child… Indicted 5 years after his release… “Did he throw his wife down from the 9th floor?” contradictory statements by the man.

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