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The Daily Yomiuri
Sept. 03, 1995
A city assemblywoman died shortly after she was found sprawled out but conscious near o fast food shop in Higashi Murayama, Tokyo, late Friday, police said.
Akiyo Asaki, 50, was discovered behind a Mos Burger outlet by a shop employee at 10:42 p.m. When asked whether she wanted an ambulance, she reportedly replied, “No, thank you,” and passed out shortly afterward, police said.
She was taken to a hospital, where she died about 1 a.m. Saturday, police said.
Her collarbone and some of her teeth were broken, they said. An autopsy showed that her death was the result of shock caused by excess bleeding. Police have yet to determine whether she killed herself or was murdered.
The employee found her in a narrow space between the fence of a parking lot and the wall of a six-story condominium complex, police said.
Police said they believed Asaki fell from the condominium complex’s unlocked, outdoor stairway because the fence was bent and there was fresh blood on it.
The condominium is in a busy district facing Higashi Murayama Station of the Seibu Shinjuku railway line. Asaki is confirmed to have stayed at her office, located 100 meters from the station, until about 7 p.m. Friday. Another assembly member reported that Asaki called her about 9:15 p.m., saying: “I’m going to relax for a while because I am feeling unwell. But I will be back in the office soon.”
Asaki’s 28-year-old daughter also won an assembly seat in the April election but resigned, saying that runner-up Hozumi Yano, 47, was more competent and experienced than she was. Yano was awarded the seat, despite harsh criticism from other assembly members of Yano and Asaki’s daughter’s “intolerable bargaining.”
On June 19, the owner of a store in Tokyo told police that Asaki stole o T-shirt from his shop. Police turned the case over to the Hachioji branch of the Tokyo District Prosecutors Office on July 12. Asaki denied the allegation and filed a slander suit against the storeowner on Aug. 3.
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