Murder of Lindsay Hawker

Lindsay Ann Hawker was a 22-year-old English teacher from Coventry, England, who had moved to Japan in October 2006 to teach at the Koiwa, Tokyo, branch of Nova, then the country's largest private English-conversation school. A biology graduate of the University of Leeds, she shared accommodation with two other foreign teachers. On 26 March 2007 she was murdered in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, by Tatsuya Ichihashi, a 28-year-old man she had met days earlier.

According to accounts Hawker gave her boyfriend in England by email, Ichihashi had approached her on her train home about five days before her death and later followed her as she cycled home. She allowed him briefly into her flat but introduced him to her flatmates as a precaution, and the pair arranged an English lesson. They met at a cafe on 25 March 2007 and then travelled by taxi to Ichihashi's nearby apartment. Hawker asked the taxi driver to wait, but the driver left after she did not return.

Hawker's body was found the following day, buried on the apartment balcony in a bath filled with a mixture of sand and compost soil. She had been bound and gagged, and bruising indicated a prolonged attack; she died after being strangled. Nova reported her missing on the afternoon of 26 March after she failed to teach scheduled classes. Officers reached the apartment that evening, but Ichihashi left the building and evaded them, escaping on foot.

A nationwide manhunt followed. Police issued wanted posters, including an image of Ichihashi disguised as a woman, and the National Police Agency later raised the reward for information to ¥10 million. Ichihashi was reported to have undergone repeated cosmetic surgery while a fugitive, and tips from several informants contributed to his capture. Throughout the search, Hawker's family made repeated appeals to keep the case in the public eye.

Ichihashi was arrested in Osaka on 10 November 2009 while attempting to board a ferry to Okinawa. In December 2009 he was charged with abandoning a body, rape and murder. In court he admitted suffocating Hawker to stop her screaming while he raped her. On 21 July 2011 the Chiba District Court sentenced him to life imprisonment; the court declined to impose the death penalty the family had sought, citing his lack of previous convictions and the possibility of rehabilitation. As of 2023 he is reported to be serving his sentence in Nagano Prison.