Sayama incident
The incident, in which then-24-year-old Kazuo Ishikawa, a man of disputed guilt in the case, was imprisoned for 31 years, highlighted official discrimination against Japan's burakumin caste.
The media criticized the police for failing to catch the possible suspect, the same mistake made during the kidnapping case of Yoshinobu Murakoshi, which had occurred only one month earlier.
Ishikawa also claimed that the police arranged a plea bargain stating that he would be freed within ten years if he confessed to the murder.
In 1969, the Buraku Liberation League took up his case, but they mostly used the situation to criticize his lawyer, a supporter of the Japanese Communist Party.
[10] Since he was a member of the burakumin, a social minority frequently discriminated against, human rights groups and lawyers claimed that the courts made the assumption that he was guilty.
The ransom note that was delivered to Nakata's house, however, contained many Chinese characters and was written by a person accustomed to writing.
The courts maintain that Ishikawa could have copied the Chinese characters out of a magazine, but analysts have testified that the handwriting is clearly that of a different person.
Eight days later, following these two extensive searches by a total of 26 trained detectives, the pen was found on the doorframe in Ishikawa's kitchen.
The doorframe is approximately 1.83 meters (6 feet) tall; there is a picture of the kitchen taken immediately following the second search that shows a small stepladder in front of the door.
However, this confession is filled with statements that violate common sense and do not match the physical layout and characteristics of the crime scene.
This lack of testimony is odd given that the confession states that Ishikawa and Nakata walked together for several hundred meters in the middle of the day.
However, at this exact time (slightly after 4pm), a man was working in his field approximately 20 meters (66 ft) away from where the murder supposedly happened.
He was questioned by the police repeatedly and testified that, while he could faintly hear the sounds of the festival over 500 meters (1,600 ft) away, he heard no screaming while he was working.
The full contents of the man's sessions with the police and his exact location during the crime were not released to the defense until 1981, 18 years after Ishikawa was tried.
The coroner's report states that the amount of force required to do this would have left bruises on her neck – no such marks were found.
The confession also maintains that Ishikawa carried the 54 kg (119 lb) body from the forest back in the direction of the town and his home, where he tied a rope around her ankles and lowered it headfirst into a hole.
The defense team has conducted several experiments whereby strong young men try to carry a body weighing 54 kg (119 lb) along the same path.
These discrepancies and inconsistencies have been presented to the Tokyo High Court by the Sayama Legal Defense Team as part of the third appeal for a retrial of the case.
