When the Japanese translator of "The Satanic Verses" was found slashed to death last summer, it shocked this relatively crime-free nation. To show their concern, police assigned 100 investigators to the case.
Today, nine months after the murder of Hitoshi Igarashi, police say they're pretty much where they started - no suspects and hardly a clue even though 16 investigators are still working.In the meantime, public interest has evaporated.
There is no direct evidence that the killing was connected to "The Satanic Verses." But it came after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini claimed the book blasphemed Islam and called for the execution of the author, Salman Rushdie, and the publishers.
"It is shocking that someone would be killed for translating a book," said Ruth McCreery, president of the Japan Association of Translators, which last fall urged police to intensify the investigation.