The was a robbery-murder by Wei Wei () and two other

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

international student International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...

s in the Higashi-ku ward of

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, on June 20, 2003. In 2004, Judge Hiroshi Suyama indicted Wei Wei for murdering Shinjiro Matsumoto and his family. The Japanese Minister of Justice Masako Mori sentenced Wei Wei to death for murder, and Wei was executed in 2019.

Outline of the incident

On June 20, 2003, the bodies of , his wife Chika (千加, age 40), and their two children (ages 8 and 11) were found in

Hakata Bay is a bay in the northwestern part of Fukuoka city, on the Japanese island of Kyūshū. It faces the Tsushima Strait, and features beaches and a port, though parts of the bay have been reclaimed in the expansion of the city of Fukuoka. The bay ...

handcuffed and weighed down with dumbbells. Shinjiro Matsumoto had been strangled with a tie, and Chika had been drowned in a bathtub. Their children had been otherwise strangled or smothered. Once the victims had been murdered, their bodies were transported by vehicle to Hakata Bay where they were discarded. Three suspects were identified from witness testimony near the discovery site and

surveillance camera A closed-circuit television camera can produce images or recordings for surveillance or other private purposes. Cameras can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras. Walter Bruch was the inventor of the CCTV camera. The main purpose o ...

footage from the store where the handcuffs and dumbbells used for the crime had been sold. The first suspect, Wei Wei (魏巍), was a 24-year-old former language student in Japan. He was detained by police in another case. He pleaded guilty to four counts of murder but contended that he was not a central figure in the case and testified that the murder was the result of a plan to rob the family while they were at home. The remaining two suspects, Yang Ning (, written in Japanese as 楊寧) and Wang Liang (), were also students. They had fled to

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

after the murders and were arrested there. The three assailants said, "I committed a crime for the purpose of robbery". Chika and Shinjiro ran a high-end restaurant, and Wang arrived by accident on the way to a part-time job. On seeing a Mercedes-Benz parked outside the restaurant, Wang thought that, "There must be a bank deposit of around tens of millions of yen in Matsumoto's house." However, there are doubts that robbery was the main motive in the case. On February 5, 2004, the Japanese daily newspaper

Nishinippon Shimbun The is a Japanese language daily newspaper published by the . As of 2022, it had a circulation of about 467,000 (total of morning and evening editions). It is headquartered in Fukuoka, which accounts for the bulk of its circulation, and is also ...

reported, "For the purpose of robbery, the amount of cash stolen was as small as about 40,000 yen, and there were many suspicious points, such as the fact that valuables such as cameras were left behind. Besides the three, there is a suspicion that an

accomplice Under the English common law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even if they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller ...

may have been present."

Progress of criminal trials

Hearing by the Chinese side (Yang and Wang)

After fleeing Japan, Wang immediately started working, but drew the attention of police by "spending extravagantly" with money he had stolen. He was brought in for questioning and confessed to the murders, giving a detailed account of the crime, providing vital information which would lead to the arrest of Yang. Both men were formally taken into custody by Chinese authorities in August 2003, and indicted for murder in July 2004. On January 24, 2005, the

Liaoyang Liaoyang () is a prefecture-level city of east-central Liaoning province, China, situated on the Taizi River. It is approximately one hour south of Shenyang, the provincial capital, by car. Liaoyang is home to Liaoning University's College of Fo ...

Intermediate People's Court sentenced Yang to

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

and Wang to life imprisonment. Wang was spared execution due to his confession and cooperation with investigators. During the sentencing hearing, he kneeled down and apologized. Family members of the victims and many in the Japanese media condemned the life term as too lenient. Yang was sentenced to death on February 3, 2005. His death sentence was confirmed by the Liaoyang Superior People's Court after a ruling which dismissed the appeal. Yang was executed on July 12, 2005, at the age of 25. Yang and Wang's criminal trial in China proceeded in step with Wei's trial in Japan, but the Chinese government did not respond officially to Wei's prosecution. Commentators in Japan compared sentencing and public opinion toward the accused.

Hearing by the Japanese side (Wei Wei)

Wei was indicted in Japan on March 23, 2004, by Judge Hiroshi Suyama of the Fukuoka District Court. The fact of prosecution was largely confirmed in the first trial, and on February 1, 2005, opening statements began regarding whether the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutors Office should seek the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. During the first trial on May 19, 2005, the Fukuoka District Court (Presiding Judge Kawaguchi) sentenced Wei to death. After accepting to hear Wei's case, the

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

broke with the District Court's silence, yielding detailed testimony on the motive, the criminal process, the role of the three assailants, and Wei's apology to the victims' bereaved family. On March 8, 2007, the Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the District Court in favor of the death sentence. Wei's appeal to the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

was dismissed by the presiding judge, , on October 20, 2011. The death sentence was finalized in the following month. Approximately eight years and one month after Wei's death sentence was finalised, Minister of Justice Masako Mori issued an execution order for Wei on December 23, 2019. On December 26, he was executed at

Fukuoka Detention House is a correctional facility in Sawara-ku, Fukuoka. A part of the penal system of Japan, it is operated by the Ministry of Justice. One of Japan's seven execution chambers is in this facility. Notable prisoners * Akira Nishiguchi (Hanged 11 Decem ...

at the age of 40.

References

External links

* {{cite web, last=Itabashi, first=Hiroyoshi, url=https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13055993, title=Chinese man executed for killing family of four in Fukuoka, newspaper=

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...