Episode 25: Woman of Seven Faces: Kazuko Fukuda

In 1982, Kazuko Fukuda strangled her coworker, changed her name, and went on the run—for fifteen years. She was playing a game of chicken with the law, trying to stay free until the statute of limitations for her crime ran out. To do this, she had to go under the knife.

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Sources:

Crime stats for Japan and the US: The Japanese Industrial System (De Gruyter Studies in Organization, 3rd Edition), Page 46, and “The U.S. Murder Rate Is Up But Still Far Below Its 1980 Peak,” FiveThirtyEight, 25 Sept 2017

“Staying Healthy in Japan: Jujin Hospital,” Tokyo Weekender,  20 May 1888

“A Modest Proposal for Capturing Fugitives,” The Japan Times, Aug 07, 1997

“Informant donates reward to charity,” The Japan Times, 24 Aug 1997

“After 14 years on run, murder suspect arrested,” The Japan Times, 30 Jul 1997

 “Japanese police scramble to catch up with criminals,” The Washington Post, Tokyo, 13 September 1997

“Ex-fugitive admits killing,” The Japan Times, 28 Oct 1997

“Life term for ex-fugitive upheld,” The Japan Times, 14 Dec 2000

“The rules of hostessing,” Japan Today, 3 November 2009

“Japan: Statute of Limitations for Murder Abolished,” Global Legal Monitor, The Law Library of Congress, 21 May 2010

“Heisei flashback: Kazuko Fukuda, ‘The Woman of Seven Faces,’” Tokyo Reporter, 19 April 2019

Music:

“Guilty” by Richard A. Whiting, Harry Akst, and Gus Kahn, sung by Anna Telfer.

“Moon-kana – Tsuki Kinoko (Yaka-anima Slow Mix)” by Yaka-anima from Broken Doll (2018), used with permission from archive.org under license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.