The Horrific 1989 Murder Of 17-Year-Old Junko Furuta

The following article includes graphic descriptions of sexual assault and murder.

Hiroshi Miyano, Jo Ogura, Shinji Minato, and Yasushi Watanabe were the ringleaders in what was considered one of the most violent crimes in post-war Japan. Though only teenagers, they demonstrated a barbaric level of cruelty on a young woman that is worse than any torture film ever written.

Junko Furuta was a 17-year-old student who was working hard to save money from a part-time job so that she could go on an upcoming graduation trip (per Suki Desu). On November 25, 1988, she was pedaling home from work on her bicycle when she rode right into the ruse that the teens had set up (via truTV). Minato rushed over to Furuta and kicked her off of her bike. At this point, Miyano appeared and played the role of Furuta's hero. Miyano made Minato leave and offered to walk Furuta safely home.

That day was the first of 44 days of horror and agony that Furuta suffered at the hands of her high school peers. Miyano first forced Furuta to go inside an abandoned warehouse with him, where he sexually assaulted her. Afterward, he took her to Minato's home, where the teens threatened to kill her family if she did not play along with their sick and abusive game. To ward off the police, they forced her on several occasions to phone her parents to tell them that she had run away from home. To keep Minato's parents at bay, they convinced them that Furuta was his girlfriend. But when the adults were out of sight, Furuta was living in a hellish nightmare.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Once Junko Furuta was held captive in Shinji Minato's home, the ringleader began inviting others to the house to participate in the sexual assault and torture of the teen. The details are much too graphic to itemize, but Suki Desu offers a shocking summation of what Furuta was forced to endure. The outlet reports that in the 44 days she was held against her will, she was sexually assaulted an estimated 500 times by the dozens of men and teens who were lured into the home to participate. She was beaten, burned, and became so weak that she was unable to crawl to a bathroom to urinate.

Only a week into the ordeal, she was hung from the ceiling and used as a punching bag by Miyano and his menagerie of sadistic goons (per truTV). Over the next several weeks, they dropped weights and exercise balls on her, ripped off her fingernails, and beat her so badly that she suffered from convulsions. And in between these savage acts, she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and sodomized. By January, she was begging Miyano for death. After another round of beatings, she was doused with lighter fluid and set ablaze. Though the fire was extinguished, Furuta died from these injuries hours later. 

Not wanting to get blamed for her death, Miyano and his murderous pals placed Furuta's body inside a 55-gallon drum. They dumped concrete inside it to conceal the body and took it to an abandoned factory lot in Koto.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

In a twist of fate, those behind Junko Furuta's death were caught when two of them were arrested for a different gang rape. Hiroshi Miyano and Jo Ogura were detained for the December attack just weeks after they had killed Furuta. Believing that the police knew about her murder, Miyano confessed to the deed and implicated his accomplices (per Suki Desu). Miyano, Ogura, Yasushi Watanabe, and Shinji Minato were all indicted for Furuta's murder and tried as adults. In the end, all four pled guilty to committing "bodily injury that resulted in death" (per truTV) and were sentenced to prison.

But the sentences they received were rather lenient, considering the shocking brutality of the murder. The longest any of the four served was a 20-year sentence — given to Miyano, who was named as the ringleader. The other three never served more than a handful of years behind bars. The parents of the teenage killer were forced to sell property so that they could make some financial restitution to Furuta's parents for their horrific loss. This gave them an estimated $600,000 (per truTV).

The case has been the subject of several books and films. In 2004, "Concrete" told the story of Furuta as well as the four main perpetrators in her torture and murder (per IMDb). The 2017 film "Junko," directed by Abhinav Thakur (per IMDb), is the most recent movie take on her death.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).