OSAKA -- A 21-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for fatally stabbing a kindergarten girl and wounding two others in the city of Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, in January 1998. According to the Sakai branch of the Osaka District Court, the man, who was 19 at the time of the crime, inhaled paint thinner the night before he killed Kana Okuni, 5, with a kitchen knife, and seriously wounded her mother while the two were waiting for a school bus on Jan. 8. The man also stabbed another passerby. A simplified psychiatric test performed on the defendant before his indictment showed he was able to take full responsibility for his actions. Subsequent tests during his trial, however, showed his mental condition was severely damaged by massive thinner intake. Defense lawyers had claimed the man's innocence, saying he was not in a state of mind to be responsible for his actions at the time of the crime. The presiding judge, Hiroshi Furukawa, however, said the act of indiscriminately attacking the weak was a serious crime and showed disrespect for human life. The name of the man has been withheld because he was a minor when the stabbings took place. Prosecutors had demanded life imprisonment. Furukawa, whose statement was read by Judge Tetsushi Yukawa, said the man had not lost his mind because he had an understanding of what he did when he was arrested. Furukawa did note, however, that the man's ability to take responsible action had been deteriorated. During Thursday's court hearing, Kana's father talked of the pain and sorrow his family has gone through. "We were a family of four, but with one gone, we feel there is a big hole in our family. We lost our joy and the meaning of the word happiness," he said. The 37-year-old father said his wife, who tried to protect her daughter and suffered serious back and chest wounds, still suffers from serious mental shock. She cannot go outside alone and hides behind her husband whenever she sees a man approach, he said. The Okuni family had to move because the mother could not stop trembling when passing by the site of her daughter's murder, the father added. The Osaka High Court is to rule Tuesday on a damages case filed by the 21-year-old man against Shinchosa, the publisher of the monthly magazine Shincho 45, for printing his name and photograph after his arrest. The Osaka District Court ordered Shinchosa to pay 2.5 million yen, but the publisher has appealed.
