The story below is originally published on Mainichi Daily News by Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi.jp). |
They admitted inventing its kinky features, or rather deliberately mistranslating them from the original gossip magazine. |
In fact, this is far from the general Japanese' behavior or sense of worth. |
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※ この和訳はあくまでもボランティアの方々による一例であり、翻訳の正確さについては各自判断してください。 もし誤訳(の疑い)を発見した場合には、直接ページを編集して訂正するか翻訳者連絡掲示板に報告してください。 |
Evil teacher writes graffiti about pupil who spurned him 2004,6,29
Shukan Shincho 6/24 By Ryann Connell
Home to shrines that Shinto legends make the holiest in Japan, Ise in Mie Prefecture has recently witnessed some grossly unholy acts committed by somebody in a profession Confucian influenced Japan once sanctified, according to Shukan Shincho (6/24).
Shockwaves first reverberated through Ise on April 23.
Written in thick, black marker on a guardrail on the road leading to the Ise Shrine was a shocking piece of graffiti that read: "I'm going to rape Kyoko Sonobe."
Kyoko Sonobe is, of course, a false name, but the actual name written in the graffiti belonged to a real person.
And she was a tiny young girl not even into her teens who had just graduated from elementary school less than one month earlier.
Similar obscene graffiti targeting young Kyoko was found in numerous other places near her Ise home.
"An identical scrawling was on the bonnet of the family car, which also had half its tires punctured," a friend of the Sonobe family tells Shukan Shincho.
"The same graffiti was found on vending machines, a bus stop and on the wall of the Sonobe home. It was written all over the place."
Any target of such vitriol would naturally be terrified, but it was especially frightening for pre-teen Kyoko.
Her enraged father raced around town scrubbing out the scrawlings, then reported the incident to the police.
But the graffiti kept popping up.
"After about 10 days, the message changed to read 'I raped Kyoko Sonobe,'" the family friend says.
"A few days later, the graffiti became even coarser, saying things like 'I came inside her' and 'she's already pregnant.' All the messages had her real name in them."
Kyoko's secret enemy had written messages that slurred her in about 50 prominent places, including near the junior high school she started attending in April. Some messages were wiped away only to return later.
Then, suddenly, the cops looking into the case got a break.
On the night of May 22, they caught a middle-aged man walking around town with a huge, black marker identical to the one in which the graffiti had been written.
He was promptly arrested, but crimefighters were shocked to learn the man in their custody who had been writing the heinous graffiti was Shigefumi Murai, Kyoko's sixth-grade teacher until she completed elementary school in March.
"Murai really adored Kyoko," one of the girl's classmates tells Shukan Shincho.
"All the stuffed toys he'd get from the UFO Catcher he'd give to her."
Murai continued showering Kyoko with presents even after she'd finished elementary school and left his class.
"He sent Kyoko text messages lots of times, but she totally ignored them all," the school buddy says.
It seems the spurned advances sparked Murai's evil streak.
The 49-year-old teacher leaped over the bounds of mere stalking and a Lolita complex, as the Japanese refer to pedophilia, to become little more than a common criminal, the weekly says.
Murai graduated from posh Mie University.
He went straight into teaching, where he remained for 27 unbroken years, a stint highly regarded in a Japan where Confucian values are still given great weight.
He went close to tying the knot at one stage, but negotiations for his arranged marriage broke down.
He remains unmarried and living with his parents.
"He was a really good boy, very serious and he didn't drink. I suppose his only real hobby is his computer," Murai's elderly mother tells Shukan Shincho.
"I don't know what drove him to do what he did. He says he's sorry, but, still..."
June 29, 2004