Almost Nothing Left to Say

The newspapers are all starting to report almost identical stories about the taxicab murder case, rather than contradictory or wildly different tales.

Today's revelation--a female acquaintance of the accused, in whose residence the accused has had recent entry, has testified that the murder weapon resembles a knife that has been missing from her home. The papers also claim that the sailor, who has been denying any connection to the crime, has begun admitting a connection to the cabby's murder to U.S. military authorities.

How long this daily drip of revelations will be allowed to go on before the Yokosuka police make a formal request for the transfer of the sailor to their custody is anybody's guess.

The Net's Closing In Around

In the case of the murdered taxicab driver (references begin here, et al) assertions today by the Yokosuka Police have made it much harder to believe in the innocence of the accused American sailor.

One report has the sailor calling an acquaintance from within Yokosuka just after the estimated time of the murder. According police, the sailor's words in that telephone conversation intimated that something bad had just happened to him.

The police have also claimed that the image of a person resembling the suspect was recorded by a Shinagawa security camera the night of the murder.

What this tells me is:

a) DNA tests and fingerprint dustings on the murder weapon and from the interior of the car have been inconclusive

b) there is pressure to lock down this case sooner rather than later.

These revelations, though not damning, are going to put extreme pressure on the U. S. Navy and the FBI to transfer the suspect to Japanese custody.

I would like to see a prosecutor convince a judge to issue an arrest warrant here first, before beating myself over the head for doubting the full guilt of the suspected murder.

Later - True to form, the Asahi Shimbun is swimming in the deepest end of the pool. While the other news agencies are claiming that the sailor in his mobile phone conversation "gave hints" or "gave indications" or "intimated" that he was involved in an incident, the headline of the top story of this evening's edition of the Asahi screams:

"The AWOL American Serviceman: 'I Stabbed Him!'"

I note with some sardony that in the article, the Asahi admits that its previous exclusive, that the serviceman claimed he was in a Dobuita drinking establishment at the time of the murder "has yet to be confirmed."

No kidding.

Still later - This is getting stupid.

The evening Asahi Shimbun claims that the serviceman told his acquaintance, "several things including 'I did it, unfortunately...' (yatte shimatta) and 'I stabbed him!' (sashita) and the like." Now the weekly tabloid magazine Shukan Gendai, always a paragon of probity, offers yet another version of today's police revelations, claiming that the serviceman said, "I did it, unfortunately..." (yachimatta) which the Shukan Gendai insists is supposed to be understood to mean, "I stabbed him."

[I file as a mental note for future reference the Shukan Gendai's use of a contraction and the Asahi's use of the formal phrase.]

It seems that nobody really knows anything.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun is hedging the most, noting that the source of today's revelations is not actually "the police," but "sources with connections to the investigation."

Which means...

Tuesday Morning's News

The Asahi Shimbun is reporting that the sailor in the Yokosuka taxi driver murder case is claiming that he was in a drinking establishment on the Dobuita at the time of the murder last Thursday. The paper cites, as a source, "a person with ties to the investigation being carried out by the Navy Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS)."

Possibly unsurprisingly, no other paper is reporting this revelation.

Perhaps it is because the Dobuita is the main bar zone just outside the Yokosuka U.S. Naval base.

If I were a Navy sailor who has gone AWOL, I think the last place I would be hiding out is in a bar in the rowdiest district of town, next to the base. It would tend to be crawling with MPs (and I do not mean "Members of Parliament").

But then, I am the cynical one.

Then again, it was not until this morning that I realized what it was that was bothering me so about the case.

Imagine if you will that you are a 61 year-old Japanese taxi cab driver, in Shinagawa on a Thursday night at 8 p.m. You have been driving a cab in Tokyo for thirty years, so you have seen pretty much everything, twice.

You pick up a really dark-skinned, 22 year old male who asks you to take him to Yokosuka.

What do you do at this point? Do you drive 45 kilometers south with a passenger whom you know is paid, at Japanese rates, what are less than poverty wages? Or because you are in Shinagawa and it is 8 p.m. do you drive over to Shinagawa Station, turn around and say, "Here. Take Train Here. Yokosuka. Very Fast. Cheap." and if the passenger refuses to get out, you go over the Kōban and tell the policeman, "I have a nutcase of a U.S. serviceman in my cab demanding to be taken to Yokosuka. Can you help me get him out of my cab?"

I think it is the latter.

He Who Fell From Grace With the Sea

Curiouser and curiouser...

According to reports, the AWOL (the news reports have called him a deserter but the Navy would probably charge someone stationed in Japan with the lesser crime of being "Absent Without Leave") sailor is of Nigerian extraction. He claims to have no connection to the murder of the taxi cab driver.

If the sailor is indeed of Nigerian heritage or even a Nigerian citizen, then his ability to hide out in Japan becomes more comprehensible. Anyone who has walked through Roppongi on a Friday night knows there are plenty of jobs available for English-speaking African men in the entertainment and leisure industry, principally as bouncers and touts.

In general, non-Americans seem to have an easier time of disappearing into the nooks and crannies of Tokyo. Recall that last June on the occasion of the second goodwill visit ever by the Pakistani Navy, 11 Pakistani sailors simply vanished .

I have had a difficulty believing the sailor to be the murderer. Part of my doubt can be attributed to my recurring pattern of sympathy for defendants in high-profile criminal investigations. A more significant portion, however, is is attributable to my unease when the number of inexplicable events exceeds one. The absurd itinerary (from Shinagawa to the gates of the Yokosuka Naval Base by taxi, then back to Shinagawa by some unknown conveyance) the too convenient presence of an incriminating credit card, the 62,000 in cash still in the cabby's purse--does not fit the story of a desperate deserter on the lam. If he were on the run, why take a taxi back to the gates of the Navy base? If he were desperate, why did he not take the money?

Who killed this cab driver and why? A pair of questions not so simple...

The Missing Sailor

American MPs have apprehended the AWOL serviceman. According to the evening reports, they picked him up in Gotanda--the armpit of the Yamanote Line (honestly, it is an unappealing place).

Now just how this fellow, missing for 6 3 weeks, made his way south from Shinagawa (Gotanda is in Shinagawa Ward) all the way to Yokosuka, murdered a cabby on damn near the doorstep of the U.S. base, took none of the wads of cash on the cabby's person, dropped his credit card in the cab, then made his way back up to Shinagawa with the police looking for him everywhere--is a mystery to me.

A further mystery--how did the MPs find him in Tokyo and not the local police? Unless he called the military police asking them to come pick him up, of course

Why did the cabby have to die, if not for robbery purposes?

Too many questions send my fervid imagination to spinning out up ever more ridiculous scenarios...

Ambassador Schieffer, Line Two

On the front page of this morning's The Asahi Shimbun, a cabby was found last night slumped over in the front seat a taxi in Yokosuka, a knife sticking out of him.

Inside the passenger compartment, a U.S. serviceman's credit card.

Methinks today is going to be a long day for the denizens of Akasaka Ichōme.

The Asahi story in 日本語 can be found here . The Mainichi Shimbun site has a sketchier English version of the story here.