The Tokyo District Court sentenced a 46-year old tatami shop owner to 2 years and 6 months in prison Thursday for burning his girlfriend¡¯s body and dumping it in the sea on Izu Oshima, an island south of Tokyo.
Sotatsu Yanase had been charged with mutilation and abandonment of the corpse of his girlfriend, 37-year-old Shizuka Takase. According to the indictment, Yanase burned and abandoned her remains between September and October 2024 near the island¡¯s southwest coast.
Presiding Judge Osamu Imai said that the act was ¡°brutal and trampled on the dignity of the deceased.¡±
Prosecutors had sought three years in prison, arguing in prior hearings that Yanase ¡°thoroughly¡± destroyed the body ¡°to the point it no longer resembled her¡± and dumped it in the sea ¡°like garbage,¡± while also covering up the crime by discarding all of her belongings.
Imai said that these cover-up attempts showed that Yanase ¡°was motivated by some apparent form of self-protection, and disposed of the body to prevent others from finding out that Takase had died.¡±
Imai also rejected Yanase¡¯s account ¡ª that Takase died by suicide and that by disposing of her body he was following a note left by her reading ¡°Scatter my bones in the sea off Oshima¡± ¡ª as ¡°utterly untrustworthy.¡±
The defense had requested a suspended sentence, saying Yanase was sincerely remorseful.
Police are still investigating how Takase died.
The pair were in a relationship going back to around 2020 despite Yanase having a wife and child. Takase was working at a bar on the island when they met but left the island in September 2023.
Takase arrived at Izu Oshima on a ferry on Sept. 9 last year and is believed to have visited Yanase¡¯s home. She told her workplace in the city of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, that she was going to travel to Okinawa with friends after visiting Yanase.
The victim had reserved a hotel in the southern prefecture, and on Sept. 11, shortly before her disappearance, she had purchased a ticket to a ferry departing Izu Oshima the following day. She then went missing and was not on board the Sept. 12 ferry.
An Izu Oshima resident in his 70s discovered the bones on Oct. 23 last year, and DNA analysis showed on Jan. 14 that they were Takase¡¯s remains.
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