REVIEW | 桶川跟踪狂杀人事件 by 清水潔
The Murder of INO Shiori by Stalkers in Okegawa
AUTHOR: 清水 潔 (Shimizu Kiyoshi）
TRANSLATOR: 王华懋 (Wang Huamao)
GENRE: nONFICTION
ISBN: 9787220118906
FIRST PUBLISHED: OCT, 2000
EDITION RELEASE DATE: FEB, 2021
PAGES: 328 PAGES
WRITTEN LANGUAGE: Japanese
EDITION LANGUAGE: Simplified Chinese
★★★★
I picked up this nonfiction book because it’s one of the most popular books in the Chinese reading community in 2021. Also because this is a nonfiction book about the crime that changed the Japanese legal treatment of stalking in Japan.
On October 26th, 1999, a 21-year-old student Ino Shiori was stabbed to death on her way home. This was a sensation event. At first, the public believed that it was a random crime targeting young female students. However, it was indeed planned by Ino’s abusive ex-boyfriend.
Cover of Japanese edition
The subtitle of this book in the traditional Chinese translation is “the girl who died three times” and this is the core of this book. Before Ino died, she has been to the police wanted to report that she was stalked and assaulted by a group of people hired by her ex. But the police didn’t pay attention and the case wasn’t filed. After she died, the media was focusing on the fact that she was a young beautiful girl who wore a couple of fashion pieces, instead of the murder case. So in the author’s opinion, she was killed three times, by the killer, by the police force, and by the media.
And this book is the journal of the author, who was a journalist of a magazine that he called “mediocre” (which was also his biggest support during the investigation). However, he insisted on investigating the truth and exposing the dereliction of duties of the police force. And eventually, he published the investigation forward, eventually found out the truth, and changed the legal system.
As a recording of true crime investigation, this book is comprehensive. In order to investigate, the author interviewed all the people he could get in contact with. And listed the ones he couldn’t get in touch with and the reasons.
There are serval key turning points in the investigation, every one of them is thrilling, and the author did a great job of leaving intriguing cliffhangers to keep readers going. And by nature, this is a case that is already complicated enough that makes readers don’t want to put down the book.
The location where the murder took place
I really admired the author’s principles in terms of reporting when reading this book. The fact that he was able to resist the pressure of writing click-baiting articles, and overcome difficulties, whether the difficulties were from the case itself, or cause by the neglectful police and other media. And for the fact that he insisted on investigating when there’re extremely limited resources.
And the author also analyzes the case as well. He was able to examine the holes in the legal system and wasn’t afraid to call out the authority. I think this also contributes to the changes in the legal system.
However, as the author admits serval times in the book, writing wasn’t his strongest skill. In fact, he openly talked about sometimes he’ll outsource the writings he needed to write for the magazine to his colleagues because he didn’t have time to polish them and also he’s not good at it. And it definitely shows from this book.
Many times I feel like the writing was a bit chaotic and it can be confusing at times too. For a case as complicated as this one, it’s easy to get lost in the massive details, different friends and relatives of Ino, many witnesses, police officers, other journalists, etc. Many times I feel like the book could get some more help editing. But I appreciate the honestly of the author when it comes to writing.
Nonetheless, this book’s society value is always higher than its literary value, and it’s indeed a book worth reading.
