Lucie Blackman was killed by Joji Obara, a wealthy Japanese real estate investor who lured the 21-year-old British former flight attendant from a Tokyo hostess bar in July 2000, drugged her, and later dismembered and buried her body in a seaside cave. He is serving a life sentence in Japan after a legal process that stretched nearly a decade and ended with the Supreme Court rejecting his final appeal in 2010.
Who Joji Obara Was
Obara was born Kim Sung-Jong to a Korean family in Japan and later adopted a Japanese name and citizenship. His father had built a fortune through taxi companies, property, and pachinko parlors, and Obara inherited substantial real estate in Osaka and Tokyo. He speculated heavily during Japan’s late-1980s bubble economy. His mansion in the upscale Den’en Chofu neighborhood of Tokyo was reportedly worth more than $25 million at the market’s peak.
When the bubble burst, his finances collapsed. He was eventually declared personally bankrupt with debts of roughly 23.8 billion yen. He still held on to several properties, including a condominium in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, which police later identified as the primary site of his crimes.
He was not an opportunistic killer. Investigators found that he had been methodically drugging and assaulting women for years. When police searched his properties, they recovered approximately 200 videotapes showing him having sex with unconscious, drugged women.1The Guardian. Japanese Killer Described as ‘Cunning Beast’ His Zushi condominium contained video recording equipment, studio lights, and bottles of alcohol laced with drugs.2The Japan Times. Obara Favored Zushi for Rapes, Police Say The tapes documented assaults against far more women than the handful who came forward. Most, prosecutors believed, had no idea what had been done to them.
How Lucie Met Him
Lucie Blackman was 21, from Sevenoaks in Kent, and a former British Airways flight attendant. She arrived in Tokyo on May 4, 2000, on a 90-day tourist visa with her friend Louise Phillips. The two took work as hostesses at the Casablanca bar in Roppongi, Tokyo’s neon entertainment district.3The Guardian. Timeline: Lucie Blackman
The hostessing job included a practice called “dohan,” where a client paid extra to take a hostess out to dinner before her shift. It was on one of these outings that Blackman vanished. On July 1, 2000, she phoned Phillips to say she was going with a customer from Casablanca who had offered her a prepaid mobile phone if she joined him for a meal near the beach. She did not share his name. That call was the last time anyone heard from her.4TIME. Lucie Blackman: Death of a Hostess
Japanese police initially treated the disappearance without urgency. Investigators floated theories that she had run off voluntarily or joined a religious cult. On August 1, 2000, they received a letter purportedly written by Blackman, claiming she was doing what she wanted and asking to be left alone. Her father and detectives alike dismissed it as a fabrication, likely written by whoever was responsible for her disappearance.5London Evening Standard. Lucie Blackman Death: Timeline of Events
What Police Found
Seven months after Blackman disappeared, on February 9, 2001, police found dismembered human remains buried in a seaside cave in the Aburatsubo area of Miura, along the Kanagawa coastline near one of Obara’s properties.6The Japan Times. DNA Tests Show Body in Cave Is Blackman’s: Cops DNA testing confirmed the next day that the remains were Lucie’s.7BBC News. Key Dates in Lucie Investigation
The body was so badly decomposed that the autopsy could not determine how she died. Prosecutors believed Obara had drugged her with chloroform before raping her, and that she died either from the drug itself or during the assault. Without proof of chloroform in her liver tissue, they could not definitively establish what killed her. That forensic gap would shape the entire prosecution.8TIME. Lucie Blackman: Death of a Hostess
The Earlier Death of Carita Ridgway
Blackman was not Obara’s first victim to die. During the investigation, police uncovered evidence linking him to the 1992 death of Carita Ridgway, a 21-year-old Australian woman who had also been working as a hostess in Tokyo. She had met Obara, then was hospitalized, and died of liver failure.1The Guardian. Japanese Killer Described as ‘Cunning Beast’
Her death had gone uninvestigated for nearly a decade. Searching Obara’s properties, police found a notebook with an entry reading, “Carita Ridgway, too much chloroform.” They also recovered videotapes of Obara raping Ridgway while she was unconscious. The evidence established a clear pattern. Obara had been using chloroform to incapacitate women since at least 1992, and at least one had already died from it before Blackman ever arrived in Tokyo.
The Trial and the Shock Verdict
Police first questioned Obara in October 2000. He admitted meeting Blackman but denied any involvement in her disappearance. He was arrested in April 2001 and charged with kidnapping her with intent to rape, attempted rape, and dismembering and disposing of her body. Separately, he faced charges for the rape of eight other women and the rape and killing of Carita Ridgway.
The trial began in October 2002 and ran nearly five years. Obara denied every charge. The prosecution’s case on Blackman was largely circumstantial: the videotapes, the drugged alcohol, the notebook, and the location of her remains near his property. Direct forensic proof tying him to her death was what they did not have.
In April 2007, the Tokyo District Court delivered a split ruling. Obara was sentenced to life in prison for the rapes of eight women and the rape and killing of Ridgway. On the charges related to Lucie Blackman, the court acquitted him, holding that the circumstantial evidence was not convincing enough to prove he was directly responsible for her death, dismemberment, or burial.9The Guardian. A Verdict That Caused Widespread Consternation In a country where more than 99 percent of cases that go to trial end in conviction, the partial acquittal was startling. For the Blackman family, it was devastating.
The Appeal and Final Sentence
Prosecutors appealed. On December 16, 2008, the Tokyo High Court reversed the acquittal on the Blackman charges. The appellate judges found sufficient circumstantial evidence to conclude that Obara had abducted Blackman from her residence in Shibuya Ward intending to drug and rape her, that she had died after he drugged her at his Zushi condominium, and that he had dismembered her body with a chainsaw and buried the remains in the Miura cave.10The Japan Times. High Court: Obara Buried Blackman
The court still stopped short of a murder conviction. The forensic problem persisted. Without a finding on exactly how Blackman died, prosecutors could not prove he intended to kill her. He was convicted of kidnapping with intent to rape, attempted rape, and damaging and disposing of a body. Combined with his other convictions, his life sentence was upheld.10The Japan Times. High Court: Obara Buried Blackman
Obara appealed to the Supreme Court of Japan, which rejected his challenge in 2010. His life sentence became final, and he remains in prison. He has never been convicted of murdering Lucie Blackman, only of the abduction, attempted rape, and disposal of her body; the killing itself has never been formally proven in a Japanese court, though the High Court accepted that she died after he drugged her.