By Sae Kushibe,
Five years have passed since a Japanese man in his 20s fatally stabbed Shinya Omori, someone who was once his advocate as well as the head of a Tokyo orphanage that was his assailant's former home.
And since the killing of Omori at the orphanage in February 2019 and the man's subsequent arrest, Omori's wife Mariko, 56, has been confounded by the country's legal system which has left her unable to access information about the case or the decision to not try him for murder on the grounds of insanity.
"I am still questioning why my husband was murdered, and what happened to the man who committed the crime?" said Mariko, who has formed a citizens' group for bereaved families in similar circumstances to lobby the government for more transparency and disclosure of information.
Children in Japan who have been separated from their parents for various reasons live in foster homes. Japan has about 600 such facilities that are home to 25,000 children.
Shinya, who co-authored a book published in 2015 that encouraged society to give more independence to former wards of the state when they reach adulthood, was serious, had a strong sense of justice and worked hard to address the residents' concerns at the facility.
One of the former residents Shinya had supported for a long time was the man who would later kill him.
When the man left the orphanage at the age of 18, Shinya co-signed his lease on an apartment. And when he caused trouble by hammering holes into the apartment walls, it was Shinya who tried to shoulder the cost of repairs.
Several months before the stabbing, the man, whose name has been withheld for privacy reasons since the case did not go to trial, lost his apartment after falling behind on rent and later disappeared without a trace from work.
He was still missing until the afternoon of Feb. 25, 2019, when he unexpectedly turned up at the orphanage and stabbed the then 46-year-old Shinya before being arrested by police at the scene.
Under police questioning, the man appeared to exhibit classic signs of delusion, making comments such as "the foster home staff had been looking inside my head," and "they had been stalking me, so I retaliated."
He also said that he had planned on stabbing more staff at the facility before his "knife broke" and that once he entered the foster home head's office, "I took out the knife and aimed for his neck and heart." Shinya was stabbed multiple times in the neck, back and side.
As a result of a May 2019 psychiatric evaluation, the man was determined to be "criminally incompetent." But there was no detailed explanation from the Tokyo district prosecutor's office, and the notice of a non-prosecution his wife received was only two lines long. It did not even include her husband's name, Mariko said.
In July of that year, Mariko went to a hearing where the man's future would be decided. She had expected to hear his motive for the killing of her husband, but hardly any time was spent on the case.
Without an attorney at her side, which is not permitted by the court, Mariko found it difficult to comprehend the legal intricacies stipulating the procedures for medical care and observation of persons deemed to be criminally insane.
It seemed to Mariko that the man had no problems responding to questions asked by the court and easily conversed with the judge and others. "How is he any different from someone of diminished capacity who received a lighter sentence?" she said with a look of frustration.
After that, Mariko asked the prosecutor's office and the Tokyo District Court to disclose information, but what she received were redacted psychiatric reports and affidavits. Information on the nature of the man's illness as well as where he was hospitalized was also withheld for privacy reasons.
A committee that held an inquest into the case determined it was "unjust to not go ahead with the prosecution." However, in April 2020, the case again did not progress, cutting off the final avenue to a criminal trial.
In 2021, Mariko established the association with other bereaved families in similar situations involving cases related to the medical care and observation law. They lobby the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court to expand statements of opinions at hearings and information disclosure.
"We would like to see the rights of victims recognized, just as they would be if a person is found criminally responsible. At the very least, we would like to know the perpetrator's current situation," Mariko said.
The man who took her husband's life remains hospitalized. But Mariko has no way of knowing the progress of his treatment, and the man's location will not be disclosed even after he is discharged from the hospital system. Despite her seemingly endless anxiety, she still hopes for the man's rehabilitation.
"I want him to face his crime and understand what it means to take a life. Otherwise, we can't say that he has been truly reintegrated into society," she said.
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