Yoshi Tsuchida
Age 3813 Nov 2015
Tokyo, Kantō (Japan)
Suffocated
TDoR list ref: tgeu/13-Nov-2015/Yoshi Tsuchida
Yoshi was found at his home in Fussa City by his adopted son, dead, mutilated and draped in a blanket, with his head covered in a plastic bag, and "his face skinned off by a knife."
Although initially thought to be a homicide the following month the results of a pathology examination revealed the cause of death to be medicinal poisoning following the intake of large quantities of the drug Etizolam, which is often used as a sleeping pill. Reportedly the Metropolitan Police concluded that Yoshi's face was eaten by his pet dogs after he committed suicide.
Tsuchida’s brutal murder illuminates the global reach of violence against transgender individuals, along with the gruesome propensity for excessively violent ends to such transphobic attacks. But the homicide also sheds light on continuing problems in the reportage of such crimes within both English and Japanese language sources.
Both The Japan Times, a politically moderate English-language source, and Sankei Shimbun, a politically conservative Japanese-language source, misgendered Tsuchida and his daughter repeatedly.
Jiji Press, another Japanese source that reported the crime, is known for its sensationalistic reporting on transgender individuals. A story published Monday sought to expose the supposed “secrets and surgery” of gender-affirming medical procedures in China.
In reporting on Tsuchida’s death, all of the aforementioned publications called his process of clinical and social transition a “sex change.”
TvT project: The Japan Times & The Advocate, 13.11.2015
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/11/13/trans-man-found-murdered-with-face-cut-off/
https://metro.co.uk/2015/11/13/transgender-man-found-dead-with-his-face-cut-off-5499235/
https://japantoday.com/category/crime/man-found-dead-with-head-in-plastic-bag-face-mutilated
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/tokyo-transgender-man-found-dead-face-skinned-reports-n462706
