page_title: Satoru Someya
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Satoru Someya / Death
caption_attribution_description: Tokyo Bay Note: You can check similar scene on street view.
context_page_description: Satoru Someya, who was a Japanese freelance journalist reporting on organized crime in Kabukichō, Tokyo, Japan, under the pen name Kuragaki Kashiwabara, was kidnapped and murdered in retaliation for his reporting about locksmiths and their involvement in thefts and for refusing to apologize to one of the subjects in a book before the fatal crime. He is the only journalist listed as confirmed by the Committee to Protect Journalists to be killed in Japan for his journalism.
context_section_description: Satoru Someya's last known contact before his kidnapping was on the night of 5 September 2003, when he had a telephone conversation with a magazine editor. Tokyo police reported Someya had financial trouble and owed money to several organizations.
  Keizo Sakurai, a locksmith who was also known as Takeshi Kihara, and two accomplices, Yoshihiro Kumamoto and Ryoichi Fuji, kidnapped Someya from his Tokyo Bay apartment and held him captive. According to police reports, Someya owed money to Sakurai. Sakurai confessed to journalist's murder on 27 April 2004. He told police Kumamoto held Someya in his apartment trying to force an apology from Someya about his portrayal of Sakurai in his book "Kabukichō Underground." Someya reportedly refused to apologize. Sakurai, Kumamoto, and Fuji placed Someya on a boat and sailed him to Tokyo Bay, where they stabbed him several times and dumped his body. Someya's body was discovered on 12 September, wrapped in a weighted chain with his hands tied with rope and eight stab wounds in his back according to Japanese police reports.
  All three men were charged with murder 16 January 2004. On 1 March 2005, Keizo Sakurai was sentenced to an 18-year prison term after pleading guilty to charges. On 11 October 2005, Yoshihiro Kumamoto was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the murder and kidnapping of Someya.
caption: A landscape of Tokyo Bay.
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