THE LUCIE BLACKMAN RIDDLE
Edited articles on the woman supposedly kidnapped by a cult.
Statements in RED are provided by the editor.
_______________________
Tokyo businessman to be charged over Lucie killing
Tracy McVeigh and Jonathan Watts in Tokyo
Sunday February 11, 2001
The Observer
The mystery surrounding Lucie Blackman, the British woman missing in Japan
since July, was finally solved yesterday when dismembered human remains
found on a beach were identified as hers.
Police said forensic tests and dental records proved the body parts were
from Lucie, a Tokyo hostess who was 21 when she disappeared.
Tim Blackman, Lucie's father, last night said he had felt a 'significant
feeling of relief' after months of uncertainty when he was told the news.
Fighting back tears, he told a press conference on the Isle of Wight: 'I
hope that she had a glass of champagne, felt a bit woozy and then passed
out. I hope she felt no terror or pain, and where she is now she is happy.
She was a very loving character and I have been privileged to be her
father.'
Japanese police said yesterday they would be charging the prime suspect
for her murder, 48-year-old businessman Joji Obara, with 'abandoning a
corpse'.
Obara, who is regarded as one of the most evil characters to have surfaced
in Japanese criminal history, is already on trial accused of drugging and
raping five women.
Yesterday he told Japanese reporters: 'I didn't bury the corpse. The
police did.' The beach where the body was found, buried in a shallow pit,
had already been searched several times by Japanese police over the past
few months. The body had been stripped, decapitated and cut into eight
pieces. The limbs were wrapped in polythene bags. The head was encased in
concrete.
The skeleton was too tall for a Japanese woman's, and police rang the
Blackman family in England on Friday to warn them that it could be
Lucie's. The cave is 250 metres from Obara's apartment in the town of
Miura, 30 miles from Tokyo.
'We have determined the identity of the body, and it was an unfortunate
outcome for the friends and family of Lucie,' said Akira Hiromitsu, of
Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department.
Lucie's family, who had spent tens of thousands of pounds in their
relentless seven-month search forher, were devastated yesterday.
Her grandfather, Eric Blackman, 78, said the family had been told Lucie
was likely to have been drugged before her death.
'Tim called me at noon immediately after putting the phone down to police
in Tokyo. He sounded very calm. It was a very brief, matter of fact
conversation, and he wants to be left alone now.
'Over the last few weeks he has come to terms with the fact Lucie was dead
and that he will never see his daughter again. We had all made our minds
up that Lucie was dead, and knew in our hearts the remains were Lucie's.'
_______________________
Japan Police Say Remains Are of British Hostess
From A.P., Sunday, February 11, 2001
TOKYO--Police have identified the dismembered remains found in a beach
cave near Tokyo as those of a British bar hostess who disappeared in July,
authorities said Saturday.
"Experts agreed that the teeth of the body matched with her dental
records. There is no discrepancy in the height, and the hair was blond,"
Tokyo police investigator Akira Hiromitsu said.
A DNA analysis is expected to take seven to 10 days, and the cause of
death is still under investigation, he said.
Lucie Blackman, 22, a former British Airways flight attendant, was
working in a Tokyo bar when she disappeared July 1. She had told a friend
that she was going on a drive to the coast with a customer who promised to
buy her a cell phone.
Authorities found the body in the resort community of Miura south of
Tokyo near the seaside apartment of Joji Obara, a Japanese businessman who
was taken into custody Oct. 12 and has since been charged with the rapes
of five foreign and Japanese women. 
Tokyo near the seaside apartment of Joji Obara, a Japanese businessman who
was taken into custody Oct. 12 and has since been charged with the rapes
of five foreign and Japanese women.
Obara, who went on trial in December, has not been charged in the
Blackman case and has maintained his innocence.
Now, "it is definite that we will charge him with abandoning a
corpse," Hiromitsu said.
Obara was said to be a regular at bars in Tokyo where foreign
hostesses pour drinks, light cigarettes and make conversation with men
willing to pay as much as $100 an hour for the service.
Soon after Blackman's disappearance, her roommate received a call
from someone who said she had joined a religious cult.
Her disappearance led to one of Japan's highest-profile missing
persons cases in years.
The corpse found Friday was cut into eight parts and the head encased
in concrete, police said.
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Tokyo police confirm autopsied body that of missing Briton
(AFP, February 10, 2001)
TOKYO, Feb 10 (AFP) -
Tokyo police investigating the disappearance of British bar hostess Lucie
Blackman said Saturday that an autopsy had determined that a dismembered body
they discovered the previous day was hers.
Police had earlier said they found the scattered remains in eight pieces
early Friday in a cave on a beach at the town of Misaki, at the mouth of
Tokyo Bay about 50 kilometres (28 miles) south of the capital.
The spot was located some 200 metres (220 yards) from one of the condomiums
owned by Tokyo property developer Joji Obara, 48, who has been charged with
six counts of rape.
Obara has not been directly charged in relation to the British woman's
disappearance in early July. But a call made at that time by a man claiming
that Blackman was undergoing cult training was reportedly traced to his
mobile telephone.
_______________________
Hostesses need protection: Blackman
Father of missing woman to demand that government regulates industry
LONDON (Kyodo, Jan. 10, 2001) The father of Lucie Blackman, whose
disappearance in Tokyo led to the prosecution of an alleged serial rapist,
said Monday he will press Japanese authorities to regulate the country's
hostess industry, which, he claims, allows villains to prey on vulnerable
young women.
Lucie was close to her 22nd birthday when she vanished in July. Her case
became a cause celebre after her father, Tim, launched a high-profile appeal
that caught even British Prime Minister Tony Blair's attention.
A subsequent probe led to the arrest of Tokyo businessman Joji Obara, 48, on
charges of serial rape of Japanese and Caucasian women.
Obara has acknowledged being entertained by Lucie where she worked as hostess
at a bar in Tokyo's Roppongi district. He denied, however, having anything to
do with her disappearance.
Blackman told Kyodo News from his home on the Isle of Wight that he plans to
deliver his plea that the Japanese government regulate its hostess industry
when he travels to Tokyo on Jan. 21.
Without proper regulation, Blackman said, hostesses are afraid of going to
the police if they suffer sexual or physical abuse from customers.
Obara stands accused of drugging and raping four women, in 1996, 1997 and
2000, at his condominium in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture. He was also served
with a fifth arrest warrant Thursday on suspicion of drugging and raping
another woman last January.
Lucie Blackman has been missing since July 1 after telling a friend that she
was going to the seaside with a customer of the bar where she worked. Obara
was arrested after one of his alleged victims came forward to say that he had
at an earlier time offered her a seaside outing, which resulted in her being
raped.
According to Japanese police, DNA tests suggest several strands of hair taken
from Obara's condo could be Blackman's.
"Whether Obara is involved or not, he epitomizes the problem where girls are
vulnerable to people who prey on them because they don't have the normal
civil rights as everyone else," Tim Blackman said, adding that it was looking
increasingly unlikely that his daughter is alive.
"Realistically, I don't think that she's going to pop up alive and well
somewhere. I don't believe that after this heavy media coverage that would be
the case," Blackman said.
"The police are not confirming to us about the DNA tests on the hair. They
just tell us that the tests are ongoing. Our goal and aim is to still push to
find out what happened to Lucie," he said.
_______________________
Father gives up hope for missing bar girl Lucie
by Peter Conradi and Julian Ryall
("London Sunday Times," January 7, 2001)
THE father of Lucie Blackman, the British bar hostess who disappeared in
Tokyo last July, has admitted he has finally given up hope of finding her
alive.
For months after his daughter's disappearance, Tim Blackman refused to accept
the worst, travelling four times to Japan to make public appeals for
information about her whereabouts. He kept his hopes up even after Joji
Obara, a Japanese businessman who was arrested in October on charges of
raping four women, admitted having met Lucie.
Blackman, an Isle of Wight businssman, conceded last week, however, that
there was only a "tiny, tiny chance" that his daughter was still alive. His
comment came after DNA tests by Japanese police on blonde hairs at Obara's
flat in Zushi, 50 miles southwest of Tokyo, were identified as having come
from his daughter.
"We simply want to unravel the mystery and find out what happened to Lucie
and who did it," Blackman said. "We are not expecting to get her back alive.
Whoever has been involved in deliberately or inadvertently ending her life,
we want to find out where she is so that we can bring her back."
Blackman said his determination not to give up hope had been largely for the
sake of his other children, Sophie, 20, and Rupert, 17.
Sophie accompanied Blackman on his visits to Tokyo, during which they were
trailed by television cameras as they toured the Roppongi entertainment
district where Lucie had worked, appealing for information about her
disappearance.
However, he admitted there was a need to be realistic. "It is partly a
defence mechanism," he said. "It's better to come to grips with the worst in
case it is the worst. And it does seem after this time that it is."
Japanese police are said to believe that the DNA analysis carried out on
samples submitted by Blackman and other members of the family "just about
conclusively proves" that Obara took Lucie back to his flat.
After initially denying having met her, Obara admitted spending an evening
with her at the Casablanca club where she worked as a hostess. He still
denies having met her subsequently, however.
Obara has been charged with drugging and raping four women, including a
Canadian and a Briton. A Japanese woman in her twenties was added to the list
last week. So far Obara has not been charged in connection with Lucie
Blackman's disappearance.
The former British Airways flight attendant entered Japan in early May as a
tourist but went missing in July after telling a friend she was going on a
trip to the sea with a client.
Blackman, who is due to return to Tokyo later this month, said his sorrow was
mixed with anger at the way Japanese police had kept him in the dark about
the case.
The last contact he had with them had been a brusque, early morning call to
tell him of Obara's arrest. The only information he had received about the
results of the DNA test came from contacts he had made during the eight weeks
he had spent in Japan.
"I understand the police had to be careful for operational reasons in the
early days of the investigation, but this is six months later," he said. "It
has all been very gruelling for us."
Blackman also wants to ensure that his daughter's death was not in vain.
During his next visit to Japan he intends to launch a campaign to regularise
the legal situation of western women who work in bars and clubs without
proper work permits. "They are in a vulnerable situation and have nobody to
appeal to," he said. "We have to change the law."
_______________________
Lucie's family in new plea for leads
Asahi Evening News
By TARO KARASAKI
November 15, 2000
The family of missing Briton Lucie Blackman on Tuesday renewed their call for
foreign bar hostesses in Tokyo's Roppongi district to come forward with
information that could help determine her fate-particularly tips on Joji
Obara, the wealthy Tokyo businessman already charged with drugging and raping
two foreign women.
Lucie's father Tim Blackman and her sister Sophie said at a news conference
in the British Embassy in Tokyo that although connections between Obara and
Lucie-who was working as a Roppongi bar hostess when she disappeared-were
``clearly circumstantial,'' they hoped to continue their own probe.
``We were hoping this is the man, but police have made it clear he is being
investigated for other charges and his connection with Lucie is clearly
circumstantial,'' her father said.
Despite that, he said, ``one can't help but look at circumstantial evidence
that he has attempted to abduct young blondes.''
``We're urgently appealing for information on Obara and his activities in
Roppongi,'' he said.
Obara, 48, has denied the charges against him and involvement in Lucie's
disappearance on July 1, when she told a friend she was going to the beach
with a customer. However, he has said he once received ``services'' from the
22-year-old at her club in late June.
Tim Blackman cited reports that police had seized videos from Obara's
residences in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture showing foreign women being
raped.
He also said he and Lucie's mother had recently provided samples for DNA
profiling in forensic work in the residences.
The two, who are due to return home today, were in Japan on a two-day visit
to set up communication lines with police so they could keep up with
investigations from Britain. While they acknowledged the prospects of finding
Lucie alive were slim, they stressed they continued to be optimistic.
``There is a realism that it has been four months, and that her life may have
come to an end, but optimism never dies,'' said Sophie Blackman.
She said she had come to acknowledge that the chances of finding her sister
dead or alive may be 60:40, while her father gave a more harsh assessment, of
80:20.
_______________________
Father and sister of missing Briton fly to Japan
LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The father and sister of missing Briton Lucie
Blackman flew to Japan on Sunday to try to add momentum to the search, but
admitted their hopes of finding her alive were fading.
"I think we're realistic that four months down the line, with no sightings of
her and with no news of her safety, obviously we can't dismiss the fact that
she may have been murdered by someone," Sophie Blackman, 20, said.
Speaking to reporters before boarding a plane at Heathrow airport in London,
Lucie's father Tim added: "Maybe without actually finding a body yet, I
suppose there is a little part of us that hopes that she's still around
somewhere."
Their departure comes a day after Japanese businessman Joji Obara, charged
with allegedly drugging and raping two young Canadian women, was reported as
saying he once received "services" from 22-year-old Blackman at a club.
But Obara said he had nothing to do with the disappearance of the former
British Airways flight attendant who dropped from sight on July 1. He has
also denied charges he allegedly drugged and raped the Canadian women in 1996
and 1997.
Lucie was believed to have been working as a bar hostess in Tokyo when she
failed to return from a day out with a client.
A day following her disappearance, according to Japanese media reports, a man
telephoned her flatmate to say Blackman would not be coming back for some
time.
Subsequent calls suggested Blackman had been taken for training in a new
religious cult, a claim her family has denied, saying she was a devout
Catholic.
Police have issued a widespread appeal for information from the public and
have plastered Tokyo with pictures of Lucie.
_______________________
Japan executive charged with raping Canadian
(Reuters, Oct. 29, 2000)
TOKYO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - A middle-aged Japanese executive has been charged
with drugging and raping at least one Canadian woman and is being questioned
over the disappearance of a young British bar hostess, officials said on
Saturday.
Tokyo District Court prosecutors charged company executive Joji Obara on
Friday with raping a 23-year-old Canadian woman, who worked as a bar hostess
in Tokyo's Roppongi night-life district, after plying her with alcohol mixed
with sleeping drugs at his home on March 31, 1996.
Police are questioning Obara in connection with the disappearance of
22-year-old Briton, Lucie Blackman, who went missing on July 1 after telling
a friend that a man was taking her for a drive to the seashore.
Obara was also formally arrested for allegedly raping another young Canadian
in October, 1997, after similarly drugging her, Japanese media said.
Police were questioning him in connection with several other rapes of young
blonde foreign women.
Obara has denied the charges, telling police he had slept with several
foreign women but did not know their identity and had no clear recollection
of meeting the Canadian women.
The 48-year-old property developer was arrested on October 12 and police have
searched a beach and a resort apartment building southwest of Tokyo in
connection with the case.
The man was a frequent visitor to hostess bars in Roppongi that employed
foreign women, and used false names, media said.
Similarities between the case of the Canadian women and the Blackman case
have led police to believe Obara may know the whereabouts of the missing
young blonde Briton, Kyodo news agency quoted investigative sources as
saying.
Police had seized several pornographic videos showing sex with foreign and
Japanese women as well as a large quantity of sleeping pills from a Tokyo
apartment owned by Obara, Kyodo said.
Blackman, a former British Airways flight attendant, has not been seen since
failing to return from a day out with a client on July 1.
After her disappearance, a man telephoned Blackman's flatmate to say she
would not be coming back for some time, according to Japanese media reports.
Subsequent calls suggested Blackman, from Sevenoaks in Kent near London, had
been taken for training in a new religious cult -- a claim her family has
denied, saying she was a devout Catholic.
Blackman's father has visited Japan several times and put up 1.5 million yen
($13,920) for information helping to locate her.
_______________________
Tokyo barman denies link to missing hostess case
by Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo ("UK Indepedent," October 19, 2000)
In the latest bizarre twist in the case of Lucie Blackman, the English bar
hostess who went missing in Tokyo, a man alleged to have inducted her into a
religious cult has been revealedas a real person, employed in the nightclub
district where she worked, rather than a made-up character, as first thought.
The day after Ms Blackman's disappearance, her best friend received a
telephone call from a man calling himself Akira Takagi, who claimed that she
was undergoing "training" with a religious group and would not be seen again.
At the time, the call was assumed to have been a hoax, intended to throw
investigators off the trail. But it turns out that there is at least one
Akira Takagi, working as a barman in the Tokyo district of Roppongi.
"Frankly, my behaviour is not always the best, and that's why somebody came
up with the idea of using my name," Mr Takagi, who is described as being in
his fifties, told the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
Japanese television news programmes have also broadcast interviews with
another man named Akira Takagi, said to be a former bank employee turned
translator. He also denies any connection with Ms Blackman, who disappeared
on 1 July after going for a seaside drive with a man she had met at the bar
where she worked.
The existence of the various Takagis is symptomatic of the confusion
surrounding the case, which appeared to be reaching a conclusion a week ago
when police arrested Joji Ohara, a property owner aged 48. Mr Ohara, who is
said to be denying the accusations against him, has been held by Tokyo police
since Friday, for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a 23-year-old
Canadian four years ago.
He is suspected of having drugged and raped as many as 20 women, Japanese as
well as Western, at a seaside flat in the town of Zushi. From his various
properties, in Tokyo and along the coast, police have recovered 2,000
individual items, including home-made videos of apparent rapes and sleeping
drugs. Mobile phones he is suspected of having used as gifts to lure his
victims into his apartment have also been seized.
More sinisterly, they have also found blonde hairs superficially resembling
those of Ms Blackman. Japanese media have reported the existence of a
motorboat hastily bought by Mr Ohara shortly before his arrest, provoking
speculation that he may have murdered her and disposed of her body in the
sea. But, at least in their leaks to Japanese journalists, thepolice do not
appear to have established any positive connection linking him with Ms
Blackman's disappearance.
_______________________
Suspect in case of missing Tokyo hostess 'bought motorboat before arrest'
by Richard Lloyd Parry ("UK Independent," October 17, 2000)
The man suspected of being behind the disappearance of the British bar
hostess Lucie Blackman in Tokyo bought a new motorboat days before his arrest
last week, prompting speculation in the Japanese media that he may have
intended to dispose of her body at sea.
Ms Blackman, 22, vanished on 1 July after going to meet a customer from the
Casablanca club where she worked. A call to her best friend from Lucie the
same day was traced to a mobile owned by Joji Ohara, a 48-year-old
businessman and property owner, according to Japanese reports.
Mr Ohara, who is said to be denying the accusations against him, has been
held by Tokyo police since Friday, for allegedly drugging and sexually
assaulting a 23-year-old Canadian four years ago.
Mr Ohara spent £23,000 on a 23ft motor boat last week, according to Japanese
media reports yesterday. He took the boat to a marina close to an apartment
that he rented south-west of Tokyo.
Several Western bar hostesses have been interviewed by the police seeking
evidence of other alleged attacks. They have removed from Mr Ohara's various
homes large boxes full of videos and photographs, some of which are said to
show him having sex with apparently drugged and bound captives. They have
also done excavations in at least one of his gardens, and on a beach near a
seaside apartment.
Mr Ohara has remained silent, and the police communicate only by means of
unattributable leaks to selected Japanese journalists.
Yesterday's reports quote the unnamed manager of a motorboat dealership in
the city of Yokohama, south of Tokyo. He is reported as saying that Mr Ohara
bought the boat on 1 October in a state of agitated haste.
Not only did he choose one of the first boats he saw on display, he asked for
the customary two-week delivery time to be reduced to one. According to the
reports he pointedly refused to allow the dealer to keep a copy of his boat
licence and the photograph it bore. He asked in detail about the best way of
sailing to the Izu chain, a series of volcanic islands 70 miles to the south.
He also asked repeatedly about how to identify Japanese coastguard vessels.
Last week, attention was focused on the garden of Mr Ohara's large suburban
house in the Tokyo suburbs. At the weekend, the media circus decamped to the
seaside town of Miura, where he has a house, and where he was reported to
have been seen late at night carrying a spade on the beach. Yesterday,
attention switched to the nearby marina, where his boat is believed to be
moored.
Last week, Japanese police asked the Blackman family for DNA samples of
Lucie, but later said they were not necessary.
_______________________
Search for Blackman clues moves to beach
("Japan Times," Oct. 15, 2000)
Police searched a beach in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture Saturday in connection
with the case of missing British bar hostess Lucie Blackman, who disappeared
in July. The search operation primarily seeks evidence to support suspicions that a
48-year-old Japanese company executive arrested Thursday molested a Canadian
woman in 1996, police sources said.
But the search of the beach, located near a resort facility, also involves a
police investigation of possible links between Joji Ohara and Blackman.
Ohara, the president of a real estate company and owner of properties in
Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, is alleged to have taken the Canadian woman to
his condominium in Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, and molested her
after plying her with alcohol.
She worked as a bar hostess in the Roppongi entertainment district in the
capital's Minato Ward. Blackman, a 22-year-old former British Airways flight
attendant, also worked as a Roppongi bar hostess.
Blackman, who speaks almost no Japanese, went missing after leaving her
apartment in Shibuya Ward on July 1, telling a friend someone was going to
take her for a drive to the seashore.
Two days later, Blackman's friend received a call from a man calling himself
Akira Takagi who said Blackman was being trained in a new religion in Chiba
Prefecture, east of Tokyo.
The disappearance became a high-profile case when Blackman's father and
sister visited Tokyo and appealed for help in finding her.
_______________________
Japan police search beach in missing Briton case
(Reuters, Oct. 14, 2000)
TOKYO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Japanese police searched a beach and a resort
apartment building southwest of Tokyo on Saturday, seeking clues in the case
of British former bar hostess Lucie Blackman who disappeared last July,
domestic media said.
On Thursday, police arrested a 48-year-old man on suspicion that he molested
a Canadian woman in March 1996 and they have been probing possible links
between him and Blackman, they said.
The man was reported to be a frequent visitor to hostess bars such as the one
where the 22-year-old Blackman worked in the Roppongi night-life district of
Tokyo.
Blackman, a former British Airways flight attendant, has not been seen since
failing to return from a day out with a client on July 1.
After her disappearance, a man telephoned Blackman's flatmate to say she
would not be coming back for some time, according to Japanese media reports.
Subsequent calls suggested Blackman had been taken for training in a new
religious cult -- a claim her family has denied, saying she was a devout
Catholic.
Police sources have said they suspect Blackman, from Sevenoaks in Kent near
London, may have been abducted.
They have issued a widespread appeal for information from the public,
plastered Tokyo with posters of Blackman and set up an information hotline.
Last month, a Japanese tabloid said a 52-year-old Japanese man questioned
about Blackman's disappearance had been found hanged in a Tokyo apartment
littered with sadistic photos of Caucasian women.
Blackman's father has visited Japan several times and put up 1.5 million yen
($13,920) for information helping to locate her.
_______________________
Suspect linked to Blackman case sent to prosecutors
(Kyodo News Service, Oct. 13, 2000)
TOKYO, Oct. 13 (Kyodo) Police sent a company executive believed to be
connected to the case of missing British bar hostess Lucie Blackman to
prosecutors on Friday on suspicion of molesting a Canadian woman four years
ago, they said.
Joji Obara, who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of molesting the Canadian
woman in March 1996, is reportedly refusing to talk about either case, police
said.
Investigators on Friday continued to search Obara's residence in Tokyo's
Setagaya Ward and his condominium in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, just
southwest of Tokyo.
Based on videotapes and photographs seized during a search of the premises
Thursday, investigators are looking into possible links between Obara and
Blackman, police said.
Earlier reports said Obara is the president of a real estate firm and owns
properties in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture.
According to the reports, the 48-year-old businessman had allegedly taken the
Canadian to his condominium in Kanagawa Prefecture and molested her after
plying her with alcohol.
She worked as a bar hostess in the Roppongi entertainment district in the
capital's Minato Ward. Blackman, a 22-year-old former British Airways flight
attendant, also worked as a Roppongi bar hostess.
Blackman, who speaks almost no Japanese, went missing after leaving her
apartment in Shibuya Ward on July 1, telling a friend someone was going to
take her for a drive to the seashore.
Two days later, Blackman's friend received a call from a man calling himself
Akira Takagi and saying Blackman was being trained in a new religion in Chiba
Prefecture, east of Tokyo.
The disappearance became a high-profile case when Blackman's father and
sister visited Tokyo and appealed for help in finding her.
_______________________
Arrest may shed light on Blackman case
("Yomiuri Shimbun," October 13, 2000)
Thursday's arrest of a company president in connection with a sexual assault
case is likely to shed light on the disappearance of a British woman who
worked at a bar in Roppongi, Tokyo.
Police have concluded that the suspect, Joji Ohara, may be linked to the
disappearance of Lucie Blackman in early July, after examining records of a
cellular phone call received by one of Blackman's friends from a man who
claimed Blackman, 22, was with him shortly after her disappearance.
Information provided by the public to Blackman's father, Tim, who came to
Japan in an attempt to find his missing daughter, led to Ohara's arrest.
During a telephone interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, Tim
Blackman said he would not be able to sleep well until his daughter was
found.
At 6:30 a.m. Thursday, police officers entered a condominium in Akasaka,
Minato Ward, Tokyo, where Ohara, 48, once lived.
A white station wagon carrying the suspect left the building about 1-1/2
hours later.
At 7:30 a.m., a police officer in charge of the investigation telephoned Tim
Blackman at his home in Britain and reportedly told him that a male suspect
believed to be involved in his daughter's disappearance had been arrested.
Blackman is reported to have informed police that a hot line he set up while
he was in the country had received reports from several former hostesses who
had worked with his daughter at the same club that a man had taken another
hostess to a condominium in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, where she was
sexually assaulted after being forced to take drugs.
Tim had relayed these reports to police, which led to the suspect's arrest.
He said he was relieved to hear that police in Japan had arrested a suspect
believed to have been involved in his daughter's disappearance.
He added that he would follow the investigation closely, but said he would
not be able to sleep properly until his daughter was found.
In a desperate attempt to find Blackman, her father and family have held
press conferences asking the public to provide information on the incident
and appealed to the British government for help in finding her during their
first visit to Japan on July 13.
Blackman's family have held eight press conferences in Japan, showing
videotapes of their daughter and appealing to the public on her birthday to
come forward with information. They have repeatedly told Japanese and foreign
reporters that the public's cooperation is indispensable in finding Blackman.
On July 20, the Blackmans met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and
Foreign Minister Robin Cook, who were attending the Group of Eight Okinawa
summit, to seek their help.
On Sept. 13, the Blackmans asked Lord Irvine, the speaker of the House of
Lords, to provide assistance.
The Blackmans also mounted their own investigation in Japan, visiting
Roppongi and Sendagaya in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, where Lucie used to live. They
distributed missing-person leaflets and asked European and American hostesses
there if they had any clues as to what had happened to their daughter.
They also set up a hot line in an office they rented from a British
businessman, which was located about 100 meters from the club in Roppongi
where Blackman worked.
_______________________
Police arrest man, suspect link to Blackman case
(Kyodo News Service, Oct. 12, 2000)
TOKYO, Oct. 12 (Kyodo) Police arrested a company executive Thursday on
suspicion of molesting a Canadian woman in March 1996, and believe he may be
connected with the case of missing British bar hostess Lucie Blackman, police
sources said.
Joji Obara, 48, is suspected of taking the Canadian woman to his condominium
in Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, and molesting her after having
her drink alcohol, the sources said.
The Metropolitan Police Department has searched several places in Tokyo and
Kanagawa Prefecture to gather evidence in connection with the case.
The Canadian woman worked as a bar hostess in the Roppongi entertainment
district in Tokyo's Minato Ward, the sources said. Blackman, 22, a former
British Airways flight attendant, also worked as a bar hostess in Roppongi.
Using false names, Obara frequently visited bars employing foreign hostesses.
He is the president of a real estate company and owns properties in Tokyo and
Kanagawa Prefecture, according to the sources.
Police suspect Obara might be involved in the Blackman case as he often went
to Roppongi bars employing foreign waitresses, and when he took the Canadian
woman out he allegedly said, ''Let's go and see the ocean'' -- the same
phrase Blackman was told before she went missing.
Obara has denied the charges, saying they are ''groundless,'' the sources
said.
He also refused to tell investigators his current home address and the
company he works for, they said.
Blackman, who speaks almost no Japanese, went missing after leaving her
apartment in Shibuya Ward on July 1, telling a friend someone was going to
take her for a drive to the seashore.
Two days later, Blackman's friend received a call from a man calling himself
Akira Takagi, who said Blackman was being trained in a new religion in Chiba
Prefecture, east of Tokyo, and that the friend would never see her again.
Blackman's family received an unconfirmed report that she may have been taken
to Hong Kong along with another non-Japanese woman.
Blackman's family members have said they do not believe Blackman would join a
cult because ''she is a Catholic'' and ''is not the sort of a person to do
that.''
Blackman's case became high-profile when her father and sister visited Tokyo
and called for help in locating her.
A mystery businessman has promised a reward of 77 million yen for information
leading to the finding of Blackman.
_______________________
Arrest linked to Blackman case
("Asahi Shimbun," October 12, 2000)
Police today arrested a 48-year-old man for drugging and molesting a Canadian
bar hostess and say they are investigating whether the suspect was involved
in the disappearance three months ago of Briton Lucie Blackman.
Police said Joji Ohara, a self-proclaimed company executive, invited the
Canadian woman to his Kanagawa apartment in March 1996 and drugged and
molested her.
Like Blackman, the women was in her 20s and worked at a bar in Roppongi.
The women recently filed a complaint with Azabu police station officers about
the incident. It was not clear why she took so long before she contacted
police.
Police said Ohara frequented Roppongi bars and spoke fluent English.
Police are trying to establish whether Ohara visited the bar where Blackman,
a former flight attendant for British Airways, worked.
Relatives of Blackman's family in England waited anxiously for more details
in the case.
``At first glance, it would seem the most positive development so far,'' Tim
Blackman, Lucie's father, told Asahi Evening News by telephone this morning
from his home in the Isle of Wight.
Blackman said the family were all back in Britain by the end of last week
since little progress had emerged by then in the three-month police
investigation.
``But for us in the family the real step forward is for Lucie to come back to
us,'' he said.
He said the family was planning to meet Thursday to discuss what to do next.
``I don't believe we will be rushing to return (to Japan) now,'' he said.
On July 1, Lucie Blackman left her apartment in Shibuya Ward after telling
her roommate that she was meeting a man who was a customer at the club where
they worked. She later phoned to say she was accompanying the man to a beach.
She did not return.
Two days later, the friend received a call from a man calling himself Akira
Takagi. He told the friend that Lucie was in Chiba Prefecture undergoing
spiritual training at a religious cult.
The apparent abduction has had huge media coverage in Britain and Prime
Minister Tony Blair personally asked Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to push the
police investigation when he visited Japan in July for the G-8 summit in
Okinawa.
_______________________
Japanese Bar 'Game' Turns Sinister
by Doug Struck ("Washington Post," October 9, 2000)
TOKYO: The neon signs of Tokyo's Roppongi district advertise one bar
stacked above another in the high-rise buildings. They specialize: Want your
bar girls dressed like nurses? Carrying whips? Prefer divorcees? Foreign
women? There's a club for you, the touts on the street whisper.
It's all done with a wink and a nudge. After all, this is safe Japan. This is
just entertainment.
"It's a game," said "Cat," 24, a brunette from New Zealand who earns $5,000 a
month flattering men at a Roppongi bar. "We know it's a game. The Japanese
men know it's a game. We get paid a ludicrous amount of money to sit here and
chat with them. It's more fun to come in here and talk to us than go home to
the tiny hovel with the wife."
But often there is more to this game, as became apparent in the case of Lucie
Blackman, a young British bar hostess who vanished three months ago after
apparently meeting a customer on her day off.
Her case would quickly have been forgotten had her family not refused to let
that happen, coming to Tokyo to mount an unusual public campaign that has
forced some self-examination of this society.
Pictures of the blond Blackman in a black cocktail dress have been plastered
across Tokyo. Her family's efforts have brought inquiries from British Prime
Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. Tokyo police have kept
50 investigators on a case with few leads.
"We're doing our best to find her," said Toshihiko Mii, deputy police chief
at the Azabu police station.
Blackman's disappearance is challenging a myth that draws hundreds of foreign
women to trade their exotic appeal in Japan for fast cash. In a country with
a reputation for safety, they believe they can flirt and flaunt and then walk
away with fat tips and no further obligations, if they choose.
The work is just a variation on an age-old game between men and women, the
women argue. But here, in the world's most expensive city, the stakes are a
little higher. The money is greater, and the sexual tension is heightened by
the fact the women are foreign; a night with a blonde is a fantasy for no
small number of Japanese men. Offers to do more--for more money--are always
there, the women say.
At One Eye Jack's bar recently, pretty young Western women leaned close to
Japanese businessmen. They gazed, appearing ever so interested, into the
men's eyes, as their customers chattered happily and ordered drinks priced
like silver.
"Cat"--short for Catherine--slid onto a bar stool, long legs briefly flashing
through a slit in her evening dress. She said her job was safe, but she
acknowledged there are dangers and pressures on new hostesses, such as
Blackman, to meet customers outside the bar.
"A lot of clubs work on points; you are supposed to go on dates with men and
bring them back to the club for points," said Catherine, who gave only her
first name. "Your pay is based on the points, and you are under pressure to
do it."
Blackman, then 21, apparently had given no hint of misgivings to her parents.
She was a flight attendant with British Airways but found the job more
tedious than glamorous. She quit this spring and, with a school friend,
Louise Phillips, decided to work for three months in Tokyo to earn enough
money to travel in Australia and Asia.
Working temporarily in Japan's expensive "gentlemen's clubs" is word-of-mouth
lore among footloose and travel-hungry young women. They hear they can earn
several hundred dollars a night simply by being fun and attractive companions.
"We're just like modern geishas," said Mae, 26, a Dane who works at One Eye
Jack's. Blackman, too, apparently thought it would be a trouble-free cash
stop.
"She assured me it was totally safe," Jane Blackman, her mother, said in an
interview. "All she was doing was having drinks with the customers and
singing karaoke. Serving drinks to customers was really no different than
being an air hostess."
Blackman and Phillips found small quarters in the "hostess dens" where
foreign women double and triple up to save on rent. They quickly found work
in Roppongi, the neon-bathed bar district of central Tokyo.
By day, Roppongi is a busy commercial section. At night, it becomes a bazaar
of titillation. The streets are lined with touts trying to lure customers
into the clubs with suggestive promises and brochures of busty models. They
peddle a lusty smorgasbord of strip joints, hostess clubs and dim bars
offering private sessions with women in back rooms.
Blackman was hired at the Casablanca Club, on the sixth floor above a glitzy
strip club. It was a small, narrow place with a row of cocktail tables where
the women chatted with men and pushed drinks. In the unwelcome glare from the
case, the club has closed.
By her parents' account, Blackman would have been a hit in the club--pretty,
outgoing, a fun companion who liked to sing. On July 1, a day off, she told
Phillips she was going out, in a way that led Phillips to conclude she was
meeting a customer from the bar. Blackman called her later that afternoon and
said she was coming home. She never arrived.
Blackman's parents and sister, Sophie, 19, have shuttled back and forth from
Britain to Tokyo, seeking publicity. Exasperated that Japanese police refuse
to divulge any information--even to family members--in crime investigations,
the Blackman family has opened a hot line in Tokyo for tips, plastered
sections of the city with posters and offered a $150,000 reward.
"You, whoever is holding her, please, I beg you from the bottom of my heart,
please let her go now," Jane Blackman appealed recently in Tokyo. "If it's a
man, you've had her long enough. If it's a group or cult, please let her go."
The Blackmans have tried not to speak harshly of Japan, but their public
appeals have challenged the cherished myth of Japan's safety. "Lucie decided
to come to Japan because it was supposed to be safe," Jane Blackman said. "It
isn't as safe as it should be."
Perhaps it never was. Human Rights Watch, based in London, issued a report
last month saying thousands of Thai women are brought here and forced into
prostitution.
Typically, recruiters lure women in poor rural areas into signing contracts
to work in Japan. When they arrive, their passports are taken, they are
confined in brothels and are told they must work as prostitutes to repay
thousands of dollars in debt, the report said.
Western women are often more sure of their rights and usually less desperate.
But the trap of prostitution can spring on them, Catherine said. She came
here on a contract but refused to surrender her passport. She was put in a
sleazy club, she said.
"It was dreadful," she said. "I was in a place full of prostitutes from
Russia, from Europe, from all over. They were going out on 'dates' with men
and coming back with Rolex watches and all kinds of jewelry, and I wasn't
making much money. I couldn't figure it out until I realized what was
happening."
Now, she said, she is in a higher-class club and resists pressure to date
customers. But even there, it's not a risk-free situation.
"You are in a place with a lot of alcohol, drunken men, and you are in a
cocktail dress flirting with them," she said. "It's like date-rape at
college; if girls say yes-no-yes-no long enough, somebody explodes and you
have date rape.
"But I think it's an incredibly safe place," Catherine said. "I leave here at
4 a.m., and I can walk home and never be bothered. I could walk topless
across the Roppongi intersection and nobody would touch me. What other
country could that happen in?"
_______________________
Mother of missing Briton appeals for information
by Elaine Lies (Reuters, September 29, 2000)
TOKYO, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The mother of Lucie Blackman, a young Briton who
went missing in Japan nearly three months ago, issued a poignant call on
Friday for witnesses to come forward with information related to her
daughter's disappearance.
Lucie, a former British Airways flight attendant who was believed to have
been working as a bar hostess in Tokyo, has not been seen since she failed to
return from a day out with a client on July 1.
``It is the not knowing that is the worst,'' Jane Blackman told a news
conference in Tokyo. ``That is why I appeal to anyone to come forward if they
know anything.''
``I'm appealing to the women of Japan -- the mothers, the daughters, the
sisters, the aunts and the grandmothers -- anyone who can give either us or
the police those vital clues needed to solve this dreadful mystery.''
``We believe there is someone out there who knows who did this and we
desperately want this witness to come forward.''
A day following 22-year-old Lucie's disappearance, according to Japanese
media reports, a man telephoned her flatmate to say Blackman would not be
coming back for some time.
Subsequent calls suggested Lucie had been taken for training in a new
religious cult -- a claim her family has denied, saying she was a devout
Catholic.
Police sources have said they suspect Lucie, of Sevenoaks, Kent, may have
been abducted while on a day out with one of her clients.
They have issued a widespread appeal for information from the public and have
plastered Tokyo with posters of Lucie, along with setting up an information
hotline, but apparently no strong leads have been received.
RUMOURS BUT NO LEADS
There have been reported sightings of Lucie as close as Tokyo's neighbouring
city of Yokohama and as far away as Hong Kong.
Last month, a Japanese tabloid said a 52-year-old Japanese man questioned
about Lucie's disappearance had been found hanged in a Tokyo apartment
littered with sadistic photos of Caucasian women.
Lucie's father has visited Japan several times and put up 1.5 million yen
($13,990) for information helping to locate Lucie, but this was her mother's
first visit.
Jane Blackman said that despite the lack of progress, she was satisfied with
the Japanese police investigation.
``They are doing everything they can, they are very meticulous,'' she added.
``I feel that because they have put so many police officers on the case that
they are taking it very seriously, and we have every faith that they will
find her.''
Jane Blackman said she had not initially worried about Lucie's plans to work
as a hostess in Japan -- a usually innocuous job that pays well but
occasionally can lead to risks.
``She said it was totally safe, that basically what she was doing was having
drinks with the customers and singing karaoke,'' she added.
Terming the months since Lucie's disappearance as ``the worst nightmare that
never goes away,'' Jane Blackman said: ``Her family wants her back -- her
brother, her sister, her father, and I want her back.''
``You, whoever you are, have had her long enough.''
_______________________
Mother of missing Briton asks public for info on daughter
(Kyodo News Service, September 29, 2000)
TOKYO, Sept. 29 (Kyodo) - The mother of Lucie Blackman, the 22-year-old
British woman who went missing in Japan three months ago, appealed to the
public Friday for any information that might lead to her discovery.
In her first meeting with the media, both in Japan and Britain, Jane Blackman
said, ''A tall, blonde, slim, good-looking girl just cannot simply vanish...I
appeal to anyone if they know anything, please come forward to the police.'' ...
A mystery businessman has promised to provide 77 million yen in reward for
information leading to the discovery of Lucie.
_______________________
Missing Lucie's father issues appeal to cult
by Richard Lloyd Parry ("UK-Independent," September 20, 2000)
If you found yourself sitting next to Tim Blackman on today's flight from
Tokyo to London, you wouldn't readily suspect what he has been going through.
You could work out his approximate age (47) and you might even guess his line
of business (property development). He is an easy conversationalist and he
would soon tell you about his home in the Isle of Wight. He looks tired, it
is true, but so would anyone who has been making this flight as often as he.
Since the middle of July, Mr Blackman has made this 13-hour journey six
times, and for the grimmest and most heartbreaking of reasons.
Eleven weeks ago, his 22-year-old daughter Lucie, who was working in a bar in
Tokyo, disappeared without a trace.
Now, what once seemed unthinkable has become the best Mr Blackman can hope
for. At a press conference yesterday, he offered to pay any abductors for the
"training" that Lucie may have undergone as a member of their "cult", “ a
possibility he previously dismissed as preposterous. "Perhaps it should be
given more thought," he said.
Mr Blackman flew out a week and half after her disappearance and has spent a
total of eight weeks here since. He has spent tens of thousands of pounds on
hotels, taxis and eating out in the world's most expensive city. He has
consulted policemen and bar girls, journalists and psychics, night- club
owners and prime ministers. He has tried everything that someone in his
position could conceivably try. But of Lucie, there is not a trace, “ not a
single reliable piece of information to indicate whether she is dead or
alive.
This morning he flies back to London close to despair. "This trip to look for
Lucie has left me really quite heartbroken and desperate," he said. "You know
how sometimes you have a nightmare, dreaming of some terrible thing happening
to you? And you know the relief when you wake up and think, 'I'm glad that
was just a dream'? My situation is reversed." ...
The police have, according to Mr Blackman, thoroughly interviewed and
eliminated from suspicion everyone connected to the club where Lucie worked
plus her boyfriend, a sailor.
Mr Blackman has been directing a dual operation to publicise Lucie's
disappearance and gather what information he can. He has given regular press
conferences in Tokyo. He has met visiting British ministers, “ Robin Cook,
Tony Blair and Lord Irvine of Lairg, “ and successfully lobbied them to press
the case with the Japanese government. A British businessman has lent an
office in Roppongi, where anyone with information is invited to visit in
confidence. A telephone company has donated a 24-hour "Lucie Hotline". ...
_______________________
Father of missing Briton hints at ransom offer
TOKYO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The father of Lucie Blackman, a young Briton who
went missing in Japan over two months ago, hinted on Tuesday he would be
willing to pay ransom to a ``religious cult'' if her disappearance was linked
to such a group. ...
Last month, a Japanese weekly tabloid said a 52-year-old Japanese man
questioned about Lucie's disappearance had been found hanged and half naked
in a Tokyo apartment, rented for several years without his family's knowledge
and littered with sadistic photos of Caucasian women.
_______________________
Cult cash offer for missing Lucie
(ITN, Sept. 19, 2000)
"The possibility that Lucie was taken to some sort of cult should be given
more thought" - father of missing hostess Lucie Blackman. ...
Japanese media have reported that her room-mate, Louise Phillips, received a
call from a man giving his name as Akira Takagi who said Lucie was in
training with a religious cult and would be in meditation for at least a week.
But authorities have been sceptical of the cult phone call and believe
Lucie's disappearance is more likely to be linked to her work as a bar
hostess in a Tokyo nightclub. ...
And Blackman has accused club owners in the Roppongi entertainment district
where she worked of forbidding employees to talk about the case or help him
in his search for fear of unwanted publicity.
"This really shows how for the industry in Roppongi, the only interest is in
their own profit," said Blackman.
"They do not have the interests of all the girls in their hearts at all."
British attention to the case has been intense. Blackman has travelled to
Japan periodically to search for his daughter, and British Lord Chancellor
Irvine brought up the disappearance last week with Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori.
More than 30,000 leaflets with Blackman's photograph have been distributed
around Tokyo, and her family is offering £100,000 for information leading to
her discovery.
_______________________
Leaflet appeal marks missing UK woman's birthday
(Reuters, Sept 1, 2000)
TOKYO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The sister of missing Briton Lucie Blackman, who
disappeared in Tokyo two months ago, stood on a busy street corner handing
out fliers appealing for information, on Lucie's 22nd birthday on Friday.
Former British Airways stewardess Lucie was believed to have been working as
a bar hostess in the Japanese capital's major nightlife district of Roppongi.
Police have said they suspect Lucie was abducted on a day out with a client. ...
On Thursday, their father Timothy said in London he had been tipped off that
Lucie and four other western girls had been kidnapped and transported to Hong
Kong. ...
An anonymous donor offered a 100,000 pound ($145,500) reward through the
daily English language Japan Times newspaper for information which would help
them find Lucie, Mr Blackman said on Thursday. ...
_______________________
100,000-pound cash reward offered for missing Briton
(Kyodo News Service, August 31, 2000)
TOKYO, Aug. 31 (Kyodo) - (EDS: TELEPHONE NUMBER OF NEW LUCIE HOTLINE IS:
03-5575-8440)
The sister of a missing British woman said Thursday her family will offer
100,000 pounds (about $145,000) in cash for information leading to the
discovery of her sister.
Sophie Blackman, younger sister of the missing Lucie Blackman, told reporters
at the British Embassy that the family received an offer Wednesday from an
unidentified British man to increase the cash reward from the 10,000 pounds
announced last week.
She also said the family received an unconfirmed report that Lucie may have
been taken to the Hong Kong area along with another non-Japanese woman. ...
Based on information received so far, Sophie said her family have
''discredited the idea that Lucie was with a cult,'' as the media have
reported.
She also said it is ''quite unlikely that one individual can keep her for two
months,'' suggesting Lucie is being held by ''a group of people or an
organization.'' ...
_______________________
Missing UK girl may be in Hong Kong, father says
by Mike Peacock (Reuters, August 31, 2000)
LONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The father of Briton Lucie Blackman, who
disappeared in Japan nearly two months ago, said on Thursday he had been
tipped off that she and four other Western girls had been shipped out of the
country to Hong Kong. ...
Heroin was often the drug of abductors' choice, he said, because it not only
sedates but also makes the victim dependent on her captors.
Police have said they suspect Lucie, who was believed to have been working as
a bar hostess, may have been abducted during a day out with a client.
Blackman said other theories floated were that she was in training with a
religious cult or had been snatched by a sado-masochistic group. ...
_______________________
Fate of missing woman mystifies two nations
by Taro Karasaki ("Asahi Shimbun," August 9, 2000)
One month after Englishwoman Lucie Blackman went missing, it's business as
usual in Tokyo's nightlife district of Roppongi.
For Sophie Blackman, every day that passes without word of her sister is a
torment. The heat of a Tokyo summer and repeated questions from police and
media, as well as the seemingly never-ending procession of women in skimpy
dresses and men in worn suits on Roppongi's streets are all taking a toll on
the 20-year-old from Sevenoaks in Kent, England. ...
But with no significant leads in the investigation-conducted by 40 officers
from the Metropolitan Police Department and the Azabu police station in
Roppongi-any hope of good news is becoming shadowed by speculation.
Some have theorized that Lucie Blackman may have been abducted by a customer
associated with a yakuza organized crime syndicate or by a member of a
religious cult. ...
Lucie Blackman came to Japan on a tourist visa in May after leaving British
Airways. According to her family, she hoped to see the world before deciding
on a career.
Together with a childhood friend, she found a job working as a hostess at one
of Roppongi's hundreds of bars. According to Sophie, who had talked to her
sister over the phone from time to time and corresponded with her by e-mail
nearly every day, Lucie appeared satisfied with her job. She had hoped it
would help pay for her travels.
However, on July 1, Lucie left home after telling her friend and roommate
only that she was meeting with a man who was a customer at the club. She
later phoned in to say she was going to the beach with the man. She did not
return.
Two days later, the friend received a call from a man who claimed that Lucie
was with him and together, they would join a religious cult. The call was
made from a public phone in Chiba Prefecture.
The incident has generated a great deal of attention, at one point even
becoming an international issue.
Prior to the Group of Eight summit in July, British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Robin Cook met with Tim Blackman
in Japan. Lucie's father arrived in Japan on July 12 to join Sophie in the
search. ...
On July 20, the Azabu police station received a typewritten letter postmarked
in Chiba, telling police to ``leave me alone'' and a passage seemingly
addressed to Lucie's father, reading: ``Don't worry about me. I'm fine'' and
``I want you to return to England.''
Judging from the halting nature of the writing and the fact that the letter
contained no more information than what had been reported in newspapers,
police have discounted its authenticity.
Hostesses who work at establishments near the club where Blackman worked said
they did not think that was a realistic expectation.
``I feel sorry for her,'' said a Swedish dancer who works at a club about a
block away from where Blackman worked. ...
Though not frequent, however, troubles involving foreign bar employees are
nothing new.
In September 1997, a Canadian in her 20s disappeared from the streets of
Roppongi. Family and friends of Tiffanny Fordham, who reportedly worked as a
bar hostess and dancer, continue to run a Web site seeking information on her
whereabouts.
The Blackmans said they have heard accounts of foreign hostesses who claimed
they were abducted and released after they had been photographed. The women,
many of whom are working on tourist visas, have not reported their ordeals to
police.
The business of employing foreign-particularly Western-women in hostess bars
has long been a part of the Roppongi scene. The hostess bars play on many
Japanese men's desire to associate with attractive-looking Western women.
For the women, the work serves as an easy way to make money to pay for
travel, as in Blackman's case. ...
_______________________
Japanese police receive letter 'from missing Lucie'
by Jonathan Watts ("Guardian Observer," August 1, 2000)
The search for Lucie Blackman took a new
turn yesterday when Japanese police
revealed they had received a letter saying the
missing 21-year-old was well and did not
want to be found. The type-written note,
purportedly from the former British Airways
stewardess, arrived at the Azabu police
station on July 20, almost three weeks after
she was last seen in Tokyo.
"We are treating this seriously. It may just be
a prank, but equally it could have been
written either by Lucie herself or by someone
who is trying to throw us off the scent," said a
spokesman for the police station.
Although the letter was written in English,
police have provided a Japanese translation
which is only partly complete.
"Leave me alone," it reads in an appeal to
the police. Another passage is addressed to
Lucie's father, Tim Blackman, who has flown
to Tokyo to search for his daughter.
"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. I want you to
return to England and I'll call you there," the
letter says.
It is signed in the name of Lucie Blackman,
but her father said he did not recognise the
signature as that of his daughter. The full
contents of the letter have not been made
public, but a police spokesman said it
contained nothing that had not been
reported in the Japanese media.
The letter was postmarked Chiba, an area
near Tokyo where Lucie was reportedly
heading on July 1, the day she went
missing.
Two days later, her best friend, Louise
Phillips, said she had received a phone call
from a man calling himself Akira Takagi,
who claimed Lucie had joined a religious
cult in Chiba.
Police believe this call was probably a red
herring. They suspect Lucie may have been
abducted by a customer at the bar where
she was working as a hostess.
_______________________
Missing Lucie's father returns
(BBC news, August 3, 2000)
Lucie Blackman was earning money to travel.
The father of Lucie Blackman, the nightclub hostess
who disappeared in Japan more than a month ago, is
flying back to Britain after failing to trace her.
Property developer Tim Blackman, 46, has been
helping Tokyo police with the search for his 21 year
old daughter.
Mr Blackman, from the Isle of Wight, had jetted to the
Japanese capital after Lucie vanished on July 1 while
working at a bar.
It is feared that she may have been abducted by a
religious cult. ...
Miss Phillips reported Lucie missing on 3 July after she
did not return from a night out with a work contact two
days earlier.
After she failed to return, Miss Phillips received a call
on her mobile phone from a mystery man saying Lucie
was going to join a "newly-risen religion", the term for
a cult in Japan. ...
_______________________
Japan police say no leads on missing Briton
(Reuters, August 1, 2000)
TOKYO, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Just one month after British woman Lucie Blackman
disappeared while working in a nightclub in Japan, police said they had made
no progress in finding the 21-year-old.
However, her father said he had not given up hope and would stay in Japan
until his daughter was found. ...
Domestic media said on Monday they had received a letter last week signed
Lucie Blackman that said she disappeared of her own free will and urged her
father and sister to return to Britain.
However, police said the signature was likely to be fake and sent to mislead
and confuse the investigation. ...
Japanese media have reported that Lucie's roommate, Louise Phillips, received
a call from a man giving his name as Akira Takagi to say Lucie was in
training with a religious cult and would be in meditation for at least a
week.
Her father has voiced doubts that her disappearance is connected with any of
Japan's numerous religious cults.
_______________________
Fake letter by missing Briton send to Japan police
(Reuters, 07/31/00)
TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) - A letter with a fake signature of a young British
woman missing in Tokyo has been sent to police urging her family not to
worry, Japanese television said on Monday. ...
But her father, Timothy Blackman, had dismissed the
signature as fake, it said. ...
Police sources have said they suspect Lucie, believed to have been
working in a hostess bar, may have been abducted while on a day out with
one of her clients.
Japanese media have reported that Lucie's roommate, Louise Phillips,
received a call from a man giving his name as Akira Takagi to say Lucie was
training with a religious cult and would be in meditation for at least a week....
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Search For Missing Lucie 'Becoming Desperate', Says Father
("UK-Guardian Unlimited," July 28, 2000)
The father of a young British woman missing in Tokyo for almost a month has
said that the search for her had become "desperate" but vowed to remain in
Japan until she was found. ...
Tim Blackman flew to Japan two weeks ago to assist in the search for his
daughter, and raised the profile of the case by making a direct appeal for
help to Prime Minister Tony Blair on July 20. ...
Lucie arrived in Japan in May on a three month tourist visa and began working
at a Tokyo nightclub shortly afterward. Two days after she went missing, a friend
received a call from a man speaking in broken English who said Lucie was
undergoing religious training at a cult facility.
Her father insists that the evidence points in another direction.
He said that Lucie is probably being held by "an individual or a small group
of people rather than actually being taken to a cult or something like that," but
didn't speculate on their identity or motives.
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Cops seek public's aid over missing Brit hostess
("Mainichi Shimbun," July 13, 2000)
More details about the missing former British Airways stewardess Lucie
Blackman were released by police Wednesday, as they appealed to anyone with
information to contact them.
The Briton entered Japan with an English friend on May 4, and has been
working as a hostess at a bar in Tokyo's seedy Roppongi entertainment
district soon afterward. The bar is one of many Tokyo bars staffed with
foreign hostesses.
On July 1, Blackman left her residence in the capital's Shibuya-ku, which she
shared with her friend, saying that she would meet a man who would buy a
mobile phone for her, police said.
She then phoned her friend some two hours later and told her that she was
going to the beach with a new customer from the club. Around 7 p.m., Blackman
called her friend again and said she should be back in an hour. She has not
been heard from since.
On the evening of July 3, a man calling himself Akira Takagi phoned up
Blackman's friend, who said in English, "Lucie's training at a hut of a
Chiba-based religious group and cannot leave the place for at least a week."
Takagi also said that Blackman's debt, around 1.1 million yen, could be
returned much quicker if she stayed with the group than working at the
Roppongi club.
On Wednesday, the woman's father, Timothy Blackman, arrived in Japan and
visited investigative headquarters set up at the Azabu Police Station, in
Tokyo's Minato-ku to be briefed on the search of his daughter.
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Briton Arrives in Japan to Seek Missing Daughter
(Reuters, July 11, 2000)
TOKYO (Reuters) - A British man arrived in Japan on Wednesday hoping to spur
a police hunt for his daughter, a former British Airways flight attendant who
has been missing for nearly two weeks and may have been kidnapped.
A missing persons report was filed on Briton Lucie Jane Blackman on July 4 by
a friend with whom she was traveling and staying in Japan, after Blackman
failed to return from an afternoon errand on July 1, police said.
``I've come to...make sure that everything is being done to find Lucie,''
Timothy Blackman told reporters on his arrival at Tokyo's Narita airport.
``We need to find her.'' ...
While kidnappings are rare in Japan, much media attention has centered on
religious cults, some of which have resorted to extreme methods to recruit
and keep members.
The Aum Shinri Kyo -- or Supreme Truth -- cult, blamed for killing 12 people
and injuring thousands by releasing poison sarin gas in the Tokyo subways in
1995, had used violence to keep members.
_______________________
Deprogramming the faithful
[Cult techniques are discussed]
(BBC News, July 11, 2000)
Police are examining the theory missing Briton Lucie Blackman was spirited
away by a Japanese cult. How can families can seek to reclaim loved ones from
the clutches of weird sects? By BBC News Online's Megan Lane.
It is one of the worst nightmares a family can face - a loved one who
disappears into a cult.
This is the scenario facing the family of Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old
Briton working as a hostess in Tokyo, who went missing on 1 July.
Japanese police are investigating whether she was abducted by one of the
customers at the late-night members' club where she was paid to chat to
drinkers.
After Ms Blackman failed to return, a friend received a phone call from an
unknown man, who claimed the former air hostess was joining a "newly-risen
religion" - the Japanese term for cult.
Ian Haworth, general secretary of the Cult Information Centre (CIC), says it
is a myth that cults target young, unhappy people.
"The most likely candidates fit the following criteria: They come from an
economically advantaged background; they are of average to above-average
intelligence; well educated; and described as idealistic.
"That's just the opposite of what society would imagine."
Should a loved one - a son or daughter, a parent, a partner - be lured into a
cult, friends and family should take it seriously, Mr Haworth says.
"A cult isn't playing games; it's playing for keeps. The aim of the average
cult is to recruit for life, or until that person is no longer useful to
them."
'Love bombing'
Mind control techniques work very quickly on unsuspecting individuals, he
says, warning that it can take just three or four days for a new recruit to
be broken down.
In 1978, Mr Haworth was himself rescued from a Canadian cult he had joined
two and a half weeks earlier: "It took me 11 months to get over it."
Typical techniques employed by cults include hypnosis, peer group pressure, deprivation of
food and drink, and "love bombing" - creating a sense of belonging through
constant hugging and flattery.
Leaders may also bombard the new recruit with complex lectures on
incomprehensible doctrine, which can break down rational thought, and implant
subliminal messages by repeating slogans.
"And while it's happening, it feels good," says Mr Haworth.
People in new towns, unfamiliar with local customs, can be particularly
vulnerable.
"Imagine if you are in London and a complete stranger comes up, says
'Hi!' and starts chatting. If you were a Londoner, you'd probably give them a
wide berth.
"But if you are fresh off the boat, you might think 'Gosh, Londoners are
friendly' and be prepared to listen to them."
Should friends and family suspect a loved one has got involved with a sect,
they must avoid going public with their fears.
"If the cult gets wind of any publicity, it can make the member disappear. I
don't mean kill them, but it may well have other branches around the country
or in other parts of the world."
The CIC recommends refraining from ridiculing the member's beliefs - he or
she will have been programmed to regard outsiders with suspicion.
Know your stuff
After re-establishing contact, friends and family can try and deprogram the
member themselves, or employ a reputable exit counsellor.
"It has to be in a voluntary session - the member has to agree to counselling,
even if they don't think they need it."
Those who choose to do it themselves must exhaustively research the cult, the
terms it uses, and its methods so they can talk to the member on the same
wavelength.
"Raise questions about the corrupt side of the group - there is always a
corrupt side, be it Swiss bank accounts or limousines."
Emphasise the difference between conversion and coercion. If a member begins
to realise the powerful experience they went through was man-made, not
divine, they may again start to question what they are doing.
Most important of all is to remain patient and constantly express your love
and support, Mr Haworth says.
He warns the process could take a week, a month, a year - and in some cases,
the member may never leave the cult.
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