TOKYO — It was a nightmare beyond belief: A schoolgirl grabbed off the street, stuffed into the trunk of a car and imprisoned in the second floor of her captor's house — for nine years.
The crime, which has dominated Japan's talk shows and tabloids, emerged last week when the victim was discovered after her abductor took her out of the house for the first time.
Along with disbelief at its sheer cruelty, the kidnapping is raising questions about police incompetence, the breakdown of communities and the complex relationship between captor and captive.
"She was not only confined physically," said Hiroaki Iwai, an expert in criminal sociology at Tokyo's Toyo University. "Her soul was also in chains."
Details of Fusako Sano's ordeal were still hazy this week, and police refuse to say whether there is evidence she was physically or sexually abused by the man who kidnapped her.
But the little information available has fascinated — and horrified — Japan.
On Nov. 13, 1990, Sano — then 9 years old — was grabbed off the street in Sanjo, about 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, and shut up in a second-floor bedroom in a small town 35 miles away, said Sanjo police official Bunyu Oshima.
Her unemployed captor — who has not been identified — fed her, dressed her in men's clothing and cut her hair short, police say. Media reports have said blurry, thick windows helped keep outsiders from seeing what was going on.
It's still not clear what her life was like in captivity. The man's mother lived on the first floor and has denied knowing about Sano, police said, though newspapers say investigators now doubt that.
Police were called last week about a man making a disturbance at a hospital. When they got there, a woman with him stepped up and identified herself as Sano. Later, she was reunited with her family, who said they never lost hope that she would be found.
The kidnapping is the longest of its kind in Japan. A man who had been missing for 23 years was discovered in 1970, Iwai said, but he had been raised by his abductor as a son — not confined to a room.
Sano's kidnapper was hospitalized, apparently for emotional problems, and police say they have not questioned him. Sano also was hospitalized, and police say she is recovering.
The questions have mounted.
How, for example, could the man have eluded police detection for nine years? He was arrested in 1989 for trying to kidnap another girl and was on probation at the time of Sano's disappearance, but police apparently never investigated him.
"There was a lack of communication between local police departments," said Iwai. "If the prefectural police had taken charge, they might have been able to do something."
Japanese are also asking how the neighbors could have failed to get an inkling something was wrong, especially in a small town. For some, the crime showed how community ties have broken down in Japan.
Sanjo police, who are heading the investigation, have refused to discuss how Sano's abductor kept her hidden for so long. Kyodo News agency quoted a police official this week as saying the handling of the case would be examined later.
Sano's behavior is also under scrutiny. She told police she was not allowed out of the house for nine years, Oshima said, but reports say she apparently had opportunities to escape. For example, the man sometimes left the house without locking the doors.
Some Japanese have speculated the girl was just too young to take action to free herself, while some experts interviewed on talk shows think that over time she — like many hostages — developed an emotional bond with her captor.
For other Japanese, there's still too little information to go beyond speculation that she may have been simply terrified by a violent captor.
"It was extremely scary, so she was obedient to him," said Akira Yoda, a developmental psychology professor at Tokyo's Showa Women's University. "She was told not to run away, and she listened to him."
Much of the attention has fixed on the suffering of a young girl robbed of a crucial period of growth in her life. While her friends were at school, playing sports and turning into adults, her world was limited to a small room.
"If you are confined during that time, you can't learn how to interact with others or live in the world," said Yoda. "It's going to take a long time for her to return to society.