Nobuharu Minato

Junko Furuta (古田 順子; 18 January 1971 – 4 January 1989) was a Japanese high school student who was abducted, raped, tortured and subsequently murdered.

Her case was called the "concrete-encased high school girl murder case" (女子高生コンクリート詰め殺人事件), since her body was discovered in a concrete drum.

In April 1986, he enrolled in a private high school in Tokyo, though he dropped out the following year.

After this, he continued to commit several crimes that escalated over time.

At the time of the crime, he had been living with his girlfriend, the older sister of Boy D, Yasushi Watanabe, and was working as a tile worker to save up money to marry her.

Dissatisfied with the job's low pay, Miyano became involved with a gangster and frequently committed sex crimes.

This delinquent behavior consequently made his girlfriend lose interest in him and end their relationship.

The abuse was mainly perpetrated by four male teenagers: Hiroshi Miyano, Jō Ogura, Nobuharu Minato, and Yasushi Watanabe, over a period of 40 days from 25 November 1988 to 4 January 1989.

The crime has been described as the worst case of juvenile delinquency in post-war Japan.

The perpetrators' sentences ranged from juvenile detention to 20 years in prison.

Furuta was born in Misato, Saitama Prefecture. She lived with her parents, her older brother, and her younger brother.

As a teenager, she attended Yashio-Minami High School, and worked part-time at a plastic molding factory during after-school hours since October 1988.

She did this to save up money for a graduation trip she had planned.

Furuta also accepted a job at an electronics retailer, where she planned on working after graduation.

At high school, Furuta was well-liked by her classmates, with high grades and very infrequent absences.

She was a popular girl who was considered to be pretty and had dreams of becoming an idol singer.

The night she was abducted, Furuta had been looking forward to going home to watch the final episode of the television show Tonbo (とんぼ, lit. 'Dragonfly').

The perpetrators were four teenage boys: Hiroshi Miyano (宮野裕史), Jō Ogura (小倉譲), Nobuharu Minato (湊伸のぶはる), and Yasushi Watanabe (渡邊恭史), who were respectively referred to as "A", "B", "C", and "D" in court documents.

At the time of the crime, they used the second floor of Minato's house as a hangout, and had, as chimpira, previously engaged in crimes including purse snatching, extortion, and rape.

Miyano, the leader of the crime, had a history of problematic behavior since elementary school, such as shoplifting and damaging school property.

On 25 November 1988, Miyano and Minato wandered around Misato with the intention of robbing and raping local women.

At 8:30 p.m., they spotted Furuta riding her bike home after she had finished a shift at her job.

Under Miyano's orders, Minato kicked Furuta off her bike and fled the scene.

Miyano, under the pretense of witnessing the attack by coincidence, approached Furuta and offered to walk her home safely.

Upon gaining her trust, he raped her in the warehouse, and again in a nearby hotel, threatening to kill her.

From the hotel, Miyano called Minato and his other friends, Jō Ogura and Yasushi Watanabe, and bragged to them about the rape.

Ogura reportedly asked Miyano to keep her in captivity in order to allow numerous people to sexually assault her.

The group had a history of gang rape and had recently kidnapped and raped another girl, whom they released afterward.

Around 3:00 a.m., Miyano took Furuta to a nearby park, where Minato, Ogura, and Watanabe were waiting.

They had learned her home address from a notebook in her backpack and told her they knew where she lived, and that yakuza members would kill her family if she attempted to escape.

The four boys overpowered her, took her to a house in the Ayase district of Adachi, and gang-raped her.

The house, which was owned by Minato's parents, soon became their regular gang hangout.

On 27 November, Furuta's parents contacted the police about her disappearance.

To discourage further investigation, the kidnappers forced her to call her mother three times to convince her that she had run away but was safe and staying with some friends.

They also forced Furuta to stop the police investigation.

When Minato's parents were present, Furuta was forced to act as his girlfriend.

They dropped this pretense when it became clear that Minato's parents would not report them to the police.

Minato's parents later claimed they did not intervene because they were afraid as their own son was increasingly violent toward them.

On the night of 28 November, Miyano invited two other boys, Tetsuo Nakumara and Koichi Ihara, E and F, respectively, to the Minato house.

They went to the upstairs room, where Junko was sitting, wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and a skirt that Miyano had stolen from a clothing store a few days prior.