Japan - Namiko Takaba (32) murdered at home, 13 Nov 1999

[Charlot123]

It was after the university tennis game that she attended. She waited until Satoru came home and approached him, then he took her to a cafe where she began to cry after confessing her feelings to him but was rejected again.

The interaction between them both at the alumni tennis club reunion in 1999, according to Satoru, was no more than a brief conversation that they are both married and working hard. Satoru wished her his best and she did the same back.
Others at the meet reported remembering Satoru speaking aloud about his job as a real estate agent at the time and needing to work Saturdays and Sundays, and it is speculated that is how the suspect knew he wouldn’t be at home that Saturday morning.

Not much else has been reported about that tennis reunion, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a luncheon or dinner involved where the attendees spoke more and perhaps, as the suspect claims, some offhanded comments were said or the conversations went a certain way especially if there was alcohol involved. This bit is all speculation from me.

What a stupid, mean, borderline defense did she choose.

A tipsy Japanese guy making an off-color joke in 1999 was hardly a big deal, and honestly, he probably tried to avoid Yasufuku at all cost, so the joke was definitely not at her expense.

Anyhow, all his life after the murder, keeping that apartment, raising his son, dedicating his life to solving this case absolutely proves that Satoru is not a misogynist.

But, Yasufuku is angry with Satoru so she tries to hurt him: “ It is your fault that I killed your wife because you were such a misogynist”.

It will only make her look worse.

I am probably the only one here seeing the analogy with Kaitlin Armstrong. In both cases, the real reason for the murder of another woman is this borderline, jealous, hateful “I am no worse than her”.

 

[espirtu pampa]

How come Yasufuku never crossed Satoru's mind as a possible suspect ? I don't remember if she was on the radar of the Police anytime

 

[Eliver]

From what Satoru shared up until now he didn't even remember her before her arrest or around that time.

It is possible the police shared her name with him this year 'cause when Satoru was summoned to the police station to formalize her arrest, the police described the suspect to him together with other circumstances and Satoru said "Yasufuku Kumiko?" to which the police allegedly answered "Yes".

Apparently she was known to the police for a long time but for whatever reason she was never fully investigated up until April, when the investigator in charge changed and the 5000-people list was made and checked person by person.

I believe the police really made a mess in this case: I understand Satoru might have not remembered her, but the police should have at the very least sat down with Satoru and help him remember even the smallest or insignificant detail.

After the arrest Satoru himself is seemingly remembering more and more things about her.

 

[Incoherent]

I believe the police really made a mess in this case: I understand Satoru might have not remembered her, but the police should have at the very least sat down with Satoru and help him remember even the smallest or insignificant detail.

Agreed 1000 times over. She was right there. Barely 5 months before it happened.

 

[Charlot123]

How come Yasufuku never crossed Satoru's mind as a possible suspect ? I don't remember if she was on the radar of the Police anytime

JMO. This case and the perpetrator is a little bit off the beaten track. I suspect that as usual, the police would think of the people who at least had some reason to hurt Namiko. They checked Satoru’s ex-wife (and maybe, some people around her) and people who had a reason to be angry with Namiko’s mother. The mother was involved in a scam, planned to move in with the family and there was even her name added to the door sign. So it would be logical to imagine: someone calls the buzzer, fully expecting Namiko’s mother to open the door, and when the door is opened, they attack. And since the list of the scam victims was not small, the police were likely checking that line. So it is not totally illogical, what they did.

Owing to Satoru’s love for his wife and his work to remove the statute of limitations for murder, the police got a lot of time, though.

Whoever Satoru suspected, he said that he thought that the person had moved from Nagoya. So I wonder if he had a suspect, maybe even someone from pre-Namiko’s time, but someone who he, at least once, had feelings for. Not someone he never loved or even remembered! It gave Yasufuku twenty-six years of normal life, but she lived in fear.

However, now it should be such a humiliation for Yasufuku. She killed another woman, lived in fear, now her family might suffer, all out of love for a man who didn’t even remember her. Is there a term similar to “Jane Doe” in Japan?

The police probably added more people when the initial line of investigation was exhausted.

MOO, of course.

Ultimately, cultures are different, but not that different. Love, loyalty, jealousy, anger, all are human feelings. I think that in certain cases worldwide, the investigators should take notes of the Takaba case. What happened: all initial lines of investigation were logical, but they led nowhere. Once the police included a (*messed up, but presenting well*) person from Satoru’s distant past, and used DNA, they got their killer.

 

[Incoherent]

With the utmost respect to Satoru and without meaning to come off as crass, I do wonder if there was more to his relationship with Kumiko than has been told so far.
It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that she held a grudge for this long though it is very surprising. She seems to have confessed to him twice, was rejected twice, with the last time leading to her breaking down in a cafe in front of him. Could there be more to it, though? Were there possibly any intimate moments between the two I wonder.
My previous comment talks about perhaps a luncheon or such taking place at the reunion with drinks flowing leading to comments or conversation that offended her, but perhaps it began from way back when they were high school and university students instead and the pair have interacted more than has been said so far. Satoru is remembering more as time goes on after all.

All JMO. No offence intended.

 

[dotr]

Thinking of the accused and her supposed anger about Satoru's alleged misogyny and wondering if she was influenced by a book inspired by a blog written by this Japanese female serial killer of men? speculation, imo.

Japanese woman Kanae Kijima suspected of 'black widow' serial killings

Former nurse and teacher accused of defrauding would-be husbands before disguising deaths as suicides and accidents

www.theguardian.com

January 31, 2025

How the real murders behind the hit novel Butter exposed Japanese media misogyny

A court found Kanae Kijima guilty of murder. Japanese society also blamed her for the way she looked.

theconversation.com

''In her book, Yuzuki questions some deep-seated Japanese stereotypes – particularly around women and cooking. She says that the concept of “marriage hunting” is still popular in Japan, and women who love cooking are often labelled as “domestic” or “obedient”.

But, in her experience, someone passionate about cooking is far from submissive. On the contrary, cooking is powerful, and a woman skilled in the kitchen could just as easily harm someone as she could nourish them. “There’s a fine line between nurturing and dangerous precision,” she told me.''

 

[Eliver]

【名古屋主婦殺害】「片思いの相手」に振られ号泣、安福久美子容疑者が被害者夫に抱き続けた恋心　事件前に起きていた「家族問題」 | 文春オンライン

高羽悟さん（69）の妻・奈美子さん（当時32）が命を絶たれたのは、1999年11月13日の昼頃のことだった。それから26年の時を経て、犯人の女が出頭。逮捕された安福久美子容疑者（69）のあまりに永い…

bunshun.jp

News are overall still scarce, but we are slowly moving towards a better understanding of the culprit (and possibly of a motive).

It is reported that Yasufuku Kumiko infatuation for Satoru was well-known at the time and that Satoru was actually infatuated with Kumiko's then best friend.

Further reports in the above news say 10 years before the murder, Kumiko lost her elder daughter due to an unspecified blood disease and at the time of the tennis reunion when she met Satoru she was raising her two children aged 10 and 5.

Apparently she married (and still is married from my understanding) a man one year younger than her that worked for an automobile parts manufacturer and at the time of the daughter's death they were all living with her husband's parents, who seem to have been pretty harsh on her.

For what it is, the above reconstruction shows a build-up of circumstances and resentment that eventually exploded when meeting Satoru at the alumni meeting.

 

[Charlot123]

With the utmost respect to Satoru and without meaning to come off as crass, I do wonder if there was more to his relationship with Kumiko than has been told so far.
It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that she held a grudge for this long though it is very surprising. She seems to have confessed to him twice, was rejected twice, with the last time leading to her breaking down in a cafe in front of him. Could there be more to it, though? Were there possibly any intimate moments between the two I wonder.
My previous comment talks about perhaps a luncheon or such taking place at the reunion with drinks flowing leading to comments or conversation that offended her, but perhaps it began from way back when they were high school and university students instead and the pair have interacted more than has been said so far. Satoru is remembering more as time goes on after all.

All JMO. No offence intended.

Sometimes I wonder if Satoru’s phrase that he was interested in her girlfriend but not in her might explain something.

We all know of/have been in the situation of someone been “secretly in love” with us, or vise versa. In high school or early college, and what happens is that the guy who’s interested in one of the girls arranges, with his best friends, to invite the girl and her “bestie”, to a movie night, or a cafeteria, or some sport event. Women usually have good intuition when it comes to men’s interests, but in precisely this situation, the interest might be easily misattributed, because everyone “tests the soil” and all is so proper. So the girl that Satoru was interested in thought that he was after Kumiko, or she didn’t notice Satoru’s feelings because he was not “her type”. But Kumiko got mistaken, because all she saw was this cute guy smiling at her (and her friend). She felt emboldened to give him Valentine gifts and couldn’t understand how come he never made the move. She even made own move, by coming to his university game, and still, nothing.

I believe that at that softball reunion 24 years later, nothing had happened, and Satoru probably behaved exactly as he said. I wonder, however, if later he jokingly said to her friend, “all the time I spent trying to gain your attention, but you were so far away!” And at that moment, a light bulb switched in Kumiko’s head. Here she was, eating her heart out over love to Satoru, giving him chocolate, coming to his university, crying…Made a total fool out of herself and was fantasizing over him for years, and now she hears that Satoru the Unapproachable used to be in love with her friend!

This could have been a shock (as such “reunion acknowledgements” usually are), but in person like Kumiko it caused anger, too.

Humans tend to think that they and their classmates are closer than IRL because they grew up together and also, “reunion confessions” often cause shock.

JMO. Maybe they posted more.