NationStates Jolt Archive

For those who don't follow the news from these fair shores, a backgrounder:
Over the last year and a hal, Japan's national pension agency, the Social Insurance Agency, has been embroiled in a scandal over lost pension records.

Now, it looks like somebody's out for justice:

Japan Ex-Pension Officials Targeted In Knife Attacks
Tuesday November 18th, 2008 / 15h22
TOKYO (AFP)--A former Japanese deputy health minister and his wife were killed Tuesday and the wife of another former minister wounded in what police said could be targeted attacks on ex-pension system officials.
Former deputy health minister Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, and his wife Michiko, 61, were found dead early Tuesday with stab wounds to the chest at the front door of their home in Saitama, north of Tokyo.
Later, the wife of another former vice health minister Kenji Yoshiwara, 76, was stabbed and seriously wounded by a man pretending to be from a parcel delivery service at the door of her Tokyo home, police said.
The 72-year-old woman, Yasuko, was taken to hospital but her life was not in danger, police said.
The former vice ministers once served as directors at the ministry's troubled pension division, according to press reports.
A senior police official said officers were working on the assumption that the attacks could be linked and were considering measures to protect former health administration officials, Jiji Press and public broadcaster NHK said.
"There is the possibility that they are serial attacks," a senior official of the agency was quoted by NHK as saying.
The motive for the attacks wasn't known, but Japan's Social Insurance Agency admitted last year to losing millions of payment records due to years of mismanagement, angering many elderly Japanese.
The agency has been criticized for being slow in making up for the errors.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare had given police a list of former ministers and directors of the social insurance agency, a ministry official said.
"We have also called these former officials individually by telephone and alerted them. There are nearly 40 of them," the official said.
http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/japan-ex-pension-officials-targeted-in-knife-attacks-564109

What? Who goes after ex-pension officials for lost records?

Wow...

:eek: Um...I guess the Japanese concept of official accountability is a little different from what we expect in the US... ?

Yakuza?
The Bride?
O Ren?

Someone who's been screwed out of their pension?

I agree with this manner of keeping public officials accountable. Hmm what is the payout on taking a country to war on false pretenses...

For those who don't follow the news from these fair shores, a backgrounder:
Over the last year and a hal, Japan's national pension agency, the Social Insurance Agency, has been embroiled in a scandal over lost pension records.

Now, it looks like somebody's out for justice:

http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/japan-ex-pension-officials-targeted-in-knife-attacks-564109

I hope they catch the person or persons responsible for these attacks.

For those who don't follow the news from these fair shores, a backgrounder:
Over the last year and a hal, Japan's national pension agency, the Social Insurance Agency, has been embroiled in a scandal over lost pension records.

Now, it looks like somebody's out for justice:

http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/japan-ex-pension-officials-targeted-in-knife-attacks-564109

I'm sure there are legal channels in Japan to get one's pension, so I can't say I condone the murders. On the other hand, I would expect that people involved with pensions in the Japanese government will work with greater diligence...

I'm sure there are legal channels in Japan to get one's pension, so I can't say I condone the murders. On the other hand, I would expect that people involved with pensions in the Japanese government will work with greater diligence...
But then fear of death is hardly the best grounds on which to coerce someone into working harder...

But then fear of death is hardly the best grounds on which to coerce someone into working harder...

Fear of death is usually quite a good motivation for harder work.

But is harder work what we're looking for, or maybe, less corruption?

I'm sure there are legal channels in Japan to get one's pension, so I can't say I condone the murders. On the other hand, I would expect that people involved with pensions in the Japanese government will work with greater diligence...
The problem being that the pension system has misplaced thousands of records and has seemingly lost millions, if not billions, in dollars of people's pensions.

The reason why folks are pissed off though is that the ministry and government KNEW about this problem but didn't do anything about it for years until the story was broke by a newspaper.

Even after the politicians in the LDP (Ruling party) promised to match every record, the ministry sheepishly said that it couldn't actually do that and the (then) prime minister tried to backtrack and state that he never made such a promise.

So people are more than a little angry right now.

Especially as since the LDP then decided to up the amount taken out of people's pensions for medical care.

This is eerily similar to a Japanese manga, Akumetsu, which I have recently been reading. http://www.onemanga.com/Akumetsu/ The basic summary of the manga is that some teenager with superpowers (ability to make copies of himself, but each has unique traits supposedly) that he uses to kill corrupt government officials, both in office and retired. The wrongs of his victims are very similar to the probable reason that the official at the health administration was also probably responsible for.

Fuckin Japan.

Fuckin Japan.
Not really, that's the other problem right now.

Fuckin Japan.

Racism???

Racism???


:rolleyes:

Not really, that's the other problem right now.

Indeed, indeed... :tongue:

I agree with this manner of keeping public officials accountable. Hmm what is the payout on taking a country to war on false pretenses...

Negative a couple trillion.

This is eerily similar to a Japanese manga, Akumetsu, which I have recently been reading. http://www.onemanga.com/Akumetsu/ The basic summary of the manga is that some teenager with superpowers (ability to make copies of himself, but each has unique traits supposedly) that he uses to kill corrupt government officials, both in office and retired. The wrongs of his victims are very similar to the probable reason that the official at the health administration was also probably responsible for.

Well there have been cases of people performing murders in manners that they read in novels. This could be some wacko fan of that Manga.

Well, the guy's been nabbed, and it wasn't related to the pensions scandal at all.

Suspect says murders motivated by death of pet dog 34 years ago

Sunday 23rd November, 11:17 PM JST

TOKYO —

A 46-year-old man arrested on suspicion of a sword and firearms control law violation has admitted to his involvement in the murders of a former vice health and welfare minister and his wife, as well as his involvement in the assault on the wife of another former vice health minister, police said Sunday.

Takeshi Koizumi, unemployed, told officers, ‘‘I was angry because my pet was killed by a health care center in the past,’’ according to the police.

Koizumi’s 77-year-old father told reporters in his home in Yamaguchi Prefecture that the family briefly kept a stray dog when his son was in elementary school, but the family eventually took the dog to an animal center to be put down because it barked.

Tokyo and Saitama prefectural police on Sunday jointly searched the home in Saitama City of Koizumi on suspicion of attempted murder over the assault case.

Koizumi was arrested early Sunday after he turned up at the Metropolitan Police Department in central Tokyo on Saturday night with a bloodstained knife in his possession, saying he killed a former vice minister.

Meanwhile, Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. said Sunday that Koizumi is believed to have sent an email message to the major TV station shortly before turning himself in to police. The message read, ‘‘The uprising this time is not a pension terror attack,’’ TBS said.

The joint investigative team of the Tokyo and Saitama police has looked into the possibility that discontent over pensions could be behind the high-profile cases, as both former vice health and welfare ministers were involved in Japan’s pension policy.

‘‘This is the revenge for the killing by a health care center of my family member 34 years ago,’’ the email message said. ‘‘Even now, they keep killing as many as 500,000 innocent pets every year. They should know that if they commit needless butchery, it will come back to them,’’ it said, according to the broadcaster.

Koizumi had the bloodied knife for which he was arrested along with seven other knives in a car he drove to the MPD at around 9:20 p.m. Saturday, according to the police. TBS said the email was sent at 7:09 p.m.

He said the bloodstained knife, which has a blade about 20 centimeters long, belongs to him, and the MPD suspects it was used in the cases.

The joint investigative squad of the Tokyo and Saitama police also plans to investigate Koizumi as a suspect in the two murders, they said.

In Saitama City, north of Tokyo, on Tuesday morning, Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, and his wife Michiko, 61, were found dead at their home with stab wounds to the chest. They are believed to have been murdered Monday.

Later Tuesday in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward, Yasuko Yoshihara, 72, the wife of Kenji Yoshihara, 76, who was also a former vice health and welfare minister, suffered serious wounds after being stabbed at the entrance to her home by a man pretending to be from a parcel delivery firm. Her husband was not in at the time.

The police said footprints left around the Yoshihara home are a match with a pair of sneakers Koizumi brought to the MPD.

Prime Minister Taro Aso commented on the arrest, telling reporters in Lima on Saturday afternoon local time, ‘‘If he really is the culprit, it’s unforgivable.’’

Tokyo and Saitama prefectural police have viewed the cases as possible serial ‘‘terror’’ attacks against former health and welfare ministry bureaucrats stemming from widespread public resentment over problems with the country’s pension system.

Both Yamaguchi and Yoshihara had served as heads of the former Health and Welfare Ministry’s Pension Bureau and also as vice health and welfare ministers.

The government will continue tightening security for current and former senior health and welfare ministry officials until obtaining conclusive proof, such as by DNA analysis, that Koizumi committed the murders and assault, a government source said.

As for Koizumi’s alleged claim that he attacked the former vice health and welfare ministers ‘‘in revenge’’ for the death of his pet dog, Jungoro Kondo, 65, who served in the post between 2001 and 2002, said, ‘‘Healthcare centers are run by prefectural and municipal governments. It is a gross misunderstanding that they are managed by the health and welfare ministry.’’

According to the Environment Ministry, some 340,000 dogs and cats were put down by local governments across the nation in fiscal 2006 after they failed to find new owners for the abandoned animals.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/suspect-held-in-murder-of-ex-vice-health-minister

Now, it looks like somebody's out for justice:


Yeah, "justice."