Eikaiwa teacher murdered

[senseiman]

A 22 year old English teacher was just found dead. Pretty sad.

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/401891

[Wage Slave]

Dreadful. Just dreadful.

[Badboy]

You beat me to it.

I actually knew the girl, had spoken to her twice in the local gaijin bar. There were 3 or 4 girls who came over Nova at the same time, all were very attractive but she stood out among them all and with her high cheek bones she looked like a model.

I don't know all the details but sounds a bit like Lucy Blackman all over again. There seem to be different versions but apparently this guy had seen her around then befriended her or got her contact info from findateacher.com. They went back to his apartment and he did her in.

[Sankyuberymucho]

That's a sad story. Tragic that someone so young could lose their life in such a senseless manner.

Japan has a reputation for being pretty safe, but my feeling is that a lot of crime is underreported. And certainly if you are a woman it's not wise to let your guard down, japan has no shortage of psychos.

I hope the police don't botch the investigation. It sounds like when they went to the guys apartment he was there, yet he managed to take off and elude the police. Surely it is not that difficult for a couple of cops to make sure the guy can't escape before they finish questioning him. I'm sure the police in japan are not all bad, but from the reports in the media I get the feeling that they are not reknowned for their investigative skills, and are especially slack when dealing with crimes where the victim is not Japanese, and/or crimes that involve a sexual element such as those criminals who confine woman.

It sounds like the guy was a former nova student, there are some real freaks that come to Nova. I remember one guy who used to turn up, who when he had a female teacher used to stick his hand down his pants ?!! When the teachers complained to the staff nothing much happened.

[Darth Smallberries]

the police will be under some pressure to get it right, as I just saw this case mentioned on tv. plus there's the fact that they found the poor girl's body in the guy's apartment, so it doesn't sound as though their investigation is going to be all that hard. they're just going to have to find him, and lone weirdos don't generally have the social network necessary to live on the run. my money is on this guy getting picked up in a day or two.

how awful it is for someone so young to be snuffed out by some freak just as her life is getting started.

[allblacks]

Well Nova, being the responsible (hah) employer that they are, were just reported as saying that the girl and the guy were not dating.

I would like to know something. If the guy, as they put it, is not a student at Nova, HOW THE FUCK WOULD THEY KNOW THAT?

No. I dont want an answer for this. Dont bother. It just proves that Nova is STUPID. The company itself is run by fucking morons that couldnt even manage their way out of a wet paper bag. They treat their staff and students like shit and then wonder why people are so wary of them.

This is what? The fourth scandal surrounding them in the last how many months?

[MrX]

I can barely find words to express my horror and disgust at the news that a beautiful, intelligent and popular person, who made the brave decision to live and work in a country so far and so different from home, and who had so much to live for, could have died in such pointless, dreadful circumstances. I wish to take this opportunity to extend my most sincere condolences to Lindsay's family, friends and colleagues, whose grief and sense of loss must be more than I could ever imagine. My only hope is that her killer is found and brought to justice quickly.

[HungFarLow]

I can barely find words to express my horror and disgust at the news that a beautiful, intelligent and popular person, who made the brave decision to live and work in a country so far and so different from home, and who had so much to live for, could have died in such pointless, dreadful circumstances. I wish to take this opportunity to extend my most sincere condolences to Lindsay's family, friends and colleagues, whose grief and sense of loss must be more than I could ever imagine. My only hope is that her killer is found and brought to justice quickly.

WTF? Are you running for office or something?

[Keleidoscope]

I can barely find words to express my horror and disgust at the news that a beautiful, intelligent and popular person, who made the brave decision to live and work in a country so far and so different from home, and who had so much to live for, could have died in such pointless, dreadful circumstances. I wish to take this opportunity to extend my most sincere condolences to Lindsay's family, friends and colleagues, whose grief and sense of loss must be more than I could ever imagine. My only hope is that her killer is found and brought to justice quickly.

WTF? Are you running for office or something?

Well I thought it was touching.

One of my workmates is from the same part of England and the same age, the youngest at my branch, we all consider him to be the baby who hasn't really experienced life yet. To have it end there, that's pretty sad.

[amerikajin274]

This is just horrible and my thoughts definitely go to her family. I can't even begin to imagine how they must feel, seeing their daughter off at the airport, the beginning of what should have been the experience of a lifetime, to have it end like this must be sickening.

I think most of of us who have lived in Japan will tell you that it is indeed safe, despite what happened here; however, women do face an elevated risk compared to the men. Just about every gaikokujin woman I know of who has lived in Japan longer than a year has a story of being assaulted, stalked or weirded out in some fashion by Japanese men. Chikans in Japan are a big problem that continues to get swept under the rug by the officials who would rather focus on an apparent foreign crime wave that doesn't even exist.

[AsahiTaimu]

I felt creeped out sometimes, but I never felt like I could get murdered. I guess no one ever does.

[MrX]

I can barely find words to express my horror and disgust at the news that a beautiful, intelligent and popular person, who made the brave decision to live and work in a country so far and so different from home, and who had so much to live for, could have died in such pointless, dreadful circumstances. I wish to take this opportunity to extend my most sincere condolences to Lindsay's family, friends and colleagues, whose grief and sense of loss must be more than I could ever imagine. My only hope is that her killer is found and brought to justice quickly.

WTF? Are you running for office or something?

Not very appropriate under the circumstances, you think? If that's your sole contribution to this thread it's hardly much better, is it?

[Darth Smallberries]

other thoughts:

1) this story is getting a lot more play than I expected. it was on the NHK national news last night, and there was just a 20 minute report (!) on it on "Tokudane", which is I think the most popular morning news show. the guy's face is literally all over the place, so that's a good thing.

2) not that it matters, but she was really pretty.

3) as bad as nova has been recently, I don't know that it's fair to blame them at all for this.

[amerikajin274]

other thoughts:

1) this story is getting a lot more play than I expected. it was on the NHK national news last night, and there was just a 20 minute report (!) on it on "Tokudane", which is I think the most popular morning news show. the guy's face is literally all over the place, so that's a good thing.

2) not that it matters, but she was really pretty.

3) as bad as nova has been recently, I don't know that it's fair to blame them at all for this.

I don't think you can pin this on Nova.

BTW, I may have missed it earlier but was she living alone?

This thread reminded me of Samhain's incident a while back, in which he gave the beat-down to some punk-bitch chikan on the train. Admittedly, I was wondering to myself whether or not he took the right course of action. Of course I cheered him on but, knowing how we are almost surely going to be the ones to get arrested if the cops ever got involved, I have to admit that, privately, I wondered at the time whether or not it was the best decision he could have made, thinking maybe he should have just confronted him verbally or gone to the cops.

This incident leaves me with absolutely no doubts that Sammy made the right choice - no questions asked. And if I'm ever in that situation, I will do exactly the same thing, and I think everyone (particularly men) have an obligation to do the same, without hesitation, consequences be damned. It's time people start standing up to these sick fvckers and give them a good shit-kicking; make everyone else in Japanese society, men and women, aware that this perverted behavior is just straight-up fvcked up to the core. This is not how a modern society allows its women to be treated. Period.

[Keleidoscope]

BTW, I may have missed it earlier but was she living alone?

No, her flatmate was the one who called the police on Monday when she hadn't come home and wasn't answering her mobile phone. Probably Nova share housing.

[Sankyuberymucho]

This report in the Sydney Morning Herald said she was dating the guy, http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bath-o ... 46744.html

However it's based on information from another website, which apparently got it's information from the school where she worked, so I doubt it is reliable.

Also she seems young and cute, and the guy looks like a complete psycho in the photo I have seen of him. The most accurate scenario is probably she was teaching him private lessons to make some extra cash. He became infatuated with her and when she spurned his advances, he got violent and beat her to death.

(I apologize to people who think this scenario is obvious, it seems obvious to me also, so I don't know why some of the media reports are reporting a lot of crap).

Can't wait for NOVA to come out with some internal memo and blame the teacher for violating the NOVA non-socialization policy, or introduce some additional policies about teaching private lessons on the side. Anyone who has worked at NOVA knows that whenever a problem occurs it's always the teachers fault.

[SamhainP8]

There was a message on the board today from monkey bridge, just a typical condolences letter etc.

What did the cockhead think the sand was going to do?

[SamhainP8]

This report in the Sydney Morning Herald said she was dating the guy, http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bath-o ... 46744.html

However it's based on information from another website, which apparently got it's information from the school where she worked, so I doubt it is reliable.

I tend to think that she must have been having some kind of relationship with the guy because I find it hard to believe that a woman in this day and age would let her guard down so much. Doing private lessons alone at some random blokes house just doesn’t sound right.

Have any of you ladies done private lessons at a random dudes house?

[Badboy]

This report in the Sydney Morning Herald said she was dating the guy, http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bath-o ... 46744.html

However it's based on information from another website, which apparently got it's information from the school where she worked, so I doubt it is reliable.

I tend to think that she must have been having some kind of relationship with the guy because I find it hard to believe that a woman in this day and age would let her guard down so much. Doing private lessons alone at some random blokes house just doesn’t sound right.

Have any of you ladies done private lessons at a random dudes house?

I read in some newspapers as well that she was dating him, heard that rumour came from Nova but I know this to be untrue. As the British press is reporting, she had a long term boyfriend back home. As I said earlier, Imet her a few times. The first time she expressed an interest in findateacher.net and soon after I noticed she had a profile up(which has now been taken down). I think there is a high chance they met via that site, but one thing for certain is that she was going round to teach him.

[MrX]

Can't wait for NOVA to come out with some internal memo and blame the teacher for violating the NOVA non-socialization policy, or introduce some additional policies about teaching private lessons on the side. Anyone who has worked at NOVA knows that whenever a problem occurs it's always the teachers fault.

As much as I'm sure they'd like to I don't think they can or will. Nova will never be able to stop teachers doing private lessons, just as they'll never be able to stop socialisation with students. I don't think they're going to blame her for violating the no-socialisation policy either - they'd get mass resignations if they did, I'm sure. In fact their policy of cutting working hours has only made it more likely that teachers will be looking for ways to make a bit of extra money in the extra time they all have these days. I think the best thing they can do, and it's not that much under the circumstances, is simply acknowledge the situation and tell people to be very careful about whom they teach and where.

[MrX]

I tend to think that she must have been having some kind of relationship with the guy because I find it hard to believe that a woman in this day and age would let her guard down so much. Doing private lessons alone at some random blokes house just doesn’t sound right.

Well, you never know. He looks like a total otaku/chikan psycho in that picture, but it may have been a bad photograph. If she knew him at all my guess is that he probably came across a lot better in person, and when she went round to his place thinking it would be okay something happened that brought out whatever was going on in his diseased brain and made him go mental. Having his advances rejected seems as likely as any other possibility to me. It's so often the case that the words the media tends to associate with the kind of men are things like "quiet," "polite" and "a hard worker." When you stop to think about just how many Japanese men you could say that about it all becomes a bit disturbing.

[Keleidoscope]

I've never had private lessons (giving or receiving) with a male (I teach and am taught by a female friend or two), but if I did, I think I'll learn from this and make the meeting place at Gusto or Starbucks.

[Gaijinity]

Have any of you ladies done private lessons at a random dudes house?

Hell NO. Partially because of the potential for something like this to occur (every single peson who has ever asked me to give them private lessons appear to be certifiable - men, women, whatever), and also because my down time is MY down time.

[Level3]

I'm also waiting for president Saruharumaru-whatever to announce that she violated NOVA's non-socialization policy, and thus any payout in the case of death under the JMA insurance is null and void.

Been watching the news reports, apparently the murderer was thinking to keep her buried until there were only bones left, then get rid of those. The downstairs neighbor said she heard all kinds of thumping from about 8PM well into the night, apparently on the night of the murder. So, obviously, the guy is an idiot. Also, he was some kind of art major, was living alone in a family-sized apartment,and graduated college at age 26... not bad for gaijin standards, but in Japan? sounds like typical rich-kid with too much freedom and brewing psycho-tendencies.
[But my Japanese sucks, anyone who has a better handle on it, please correct me]

Stalkers and psychos chasing after female eikaiwa staff is a problem that is largely ignored. Given the stories female staff have told me from around my area, and working out the math, I wouldn't be surprised if at least 1% of the students at any branch are literally stalking some member of the staff at any given time. A much larger percentage are just there to oogle the females during lesson time only. A fraction of a percent get violent.
Even when problems are reported, usually only at the local level by eikaiwa staff (not HQ), they are usually ignored or even chewed out by, the "police".

[MrX]

I'm also waiting for president Saruharumaru-whatever to announce that she violated NOVA's non-socialization policy, and thus any payout in the case of death under the JMA insurance is null and void.

Not even Nova are that crass. All that's come from Head Office is, as mentioned earlier, a fax from Sa(ru)hashi expressing his condolences and another one from Foreign Personnel mentioning a counselling phoneline. This is going to create a massive headache for them - Nova's had its name all over the British media over this, and the effect it'll have on overseas recruitment can only be guessed at. They're hardly going to want to make it worse by criticising the poor girl for not following company policy.

Stalkers and psychos chasing after female eikaiwa staff is a problem that is largely ignored. Given the stories female staff have told me from around my area, and working out the math, I wouldn't be surprised if at least 1% of the students at any branch are literally stalking some member of the staff at any given time. A much larger percentage are just there to oogle the females during lesson time only. A fraction of a percent get violent.
Even when problems are reported, usually only at the local level by eikaiwa staff (not HQ), they are usually ignored or even chewed out by, the "police".

Considering what the average Japanese police officer gets up to in his spare time, as regularly reported in the sexual deviant crimes column of English language newspapers, it's hardly surprising, is it?

[ArcArsenal]

this thing upset me to the core and personally, having a gj girlfriend here, I will NEVER hesitate to lay out a severe ass beating for the next creep that tries for an arse grabbing, stalking, or any other inappropriate behavior again, as previously stated, consequences be damned.

I think people here need to stand up for women more often. I see so much crap on the train, and I feel like I'm the only guy who ever helps women when they drop their purse/luggage or even holds a damn door open in public.

I've had Japanese people complain that gj are here to "take their women" but honestly how can they expect to keep them if they have no idea how to treat them properly?

I now understand how all the ugly foreign guys seem to land mega babes in Japan: they treat them with respect and dignity.

It still doesn't stop them from avoiding a fellow foreigner in public, for fear of being recognized for what they are, but more power to them for treating a woman right!


This incident is a pretty big outrage and I really hope the police deal with it properly, but part of me knows that the incompetant douchebags and the system will ensure that he never is punished for his crimes because she was a foreigner. All too often it seems like cases involving a foreigner turn into a case of victimal blame.

[allblacks]

I personally think that if the cops stopped spending so much time stopping me on my bicycle (10 times in the last four months, sometimes the same cop) that they would actually be able to do something about the rising crime rates. Oooh! Bicycle theft! Big fucking problem in comparison! What really pisses me off is that the cops will stop people on bicycles but the yankee fuckwits in their yankeed out cars with tinting and their kids on their laps in the driver seats and on the cellphone while they run that red light will get away with all kinds of shit.

The roads around Osaka are very dangerous to drive on. You have to be so defensive all the time. Actually, you have to be agressive-defensive I think.

[Wage Slave]

Here is a shortcut to the BBC report on what her family are saying:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 501991.stm

They are being extremely brave and dignified. Respect.

[SamhainP8]

Here is a shortcut to the BBC report on what her family are saying:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 501991.stm

They are being extremely brave and dignified. Respect.

Sounds like the cops have started to lay the foundations of a get out of jail free card already.

"The victim was completely naked and her clothes were around the apartment, although we don't know whether they were taken off by her or by the suspect."

What’s the bet this turns into some kind of poor prick teased, date rape / murder and he gets off with a slap on the wrist.

[MrX]

What’s the bet this turns into some kind of poor prick teased, date rape / murder and he gets off with a slap on the wrist.

That's assuming they can find him. So far they haven't had much luck, which I personally think is a bit poor. I'm beginning to wonder if he hasn't done himself in and is now at the bottom of a river somewhere.

P.S. I thought that comment from the police chief was absolutely appalling as well. In any other country he'd be fired, but I'm sure it won't be long before people like Aso and Ishihara come up with even worse things to say.