OSAKA (TR) – Two female followers of a self-proclaimed fortuneteller earlier this month admitted to assist in the suicides of two male followers by drowning five years ago, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 2).
At the Osaka District Court on August 1, Sawako Terasaki, 47, and Naori Takitani 59, admitted to allegations of aiding and abetting suicide and forgery.
According to the prosecution’s opening statement, the two defendants were core followers of fortuneteller Yoshie Hamada, 63, known as the “Creator.” Indicted on charges including instigating suicide, Hamada referred to her followers as “members of the Kingdom of God.”
According to the indictment, Takitani conspired with Hamada to prepare painkillers and microphone cords for the binding of the bodies of the two men — Kohei Teramoto and Ichiro Yoneda — in assisting them to commit suicide in July 2020.
Yoshie Hamada, left, and follower Naori Takitani (X)
Meanwhile, Terasaki forged a suicide note for one of the men and submitted it to the police the following August.
When police first arrested Hamada in January for extortion, she revealed about Teramoto, Yoneda and Takitani, “We made a plan to die together and entered the sea.”
In entering her guilty plea, Takitani largely admitted to carrying out the act, but stated that she had also followed Hamada’s lead and attempted to commit suicide. “I ended up surviving,” she said.
AloJapan.com