Tokyo, Dec. 9 (Jiji Press) – Tokyo police have arrested four men on suspicion of coercing a former colleague into standing on a railroad crossing, where he was fatally struck by a train in December 2023.
The Metropolitan Police Department apprehended Manabu Sasaki, 39, the president of a building painting company, along with employees Akihito Shimahata, 34, Shunta Nozaki, 39, and Atsuya Iwaide, 30, in connection with the incident.
Initially, authorities considered the incident to be a possible suicide or accident. However, their investigation took a different turn when they discovered a suspicious vehicle departing from the vicinity of the railroad crossing shortly after the fatal collision.
As the investigation progressed, police reclassified the case as murder. They believe the suspects subjected 56-year-old Osamu Takano, a former employee of the company, to daily physical assaults, forcing him to comply with their orders. The suspects allegedly confined Takano in a vehicle from 11:40 p.m. to midnight on Dec. 2, 2023, before instructing him to stand on the tracks near Shimo-akatsuka and Tobu-Nerima stations along the Tobu Tojo Line, where he was struck by a passing train. Authorities suspect the men staged the incident to appear as a suicide.
