Former Attack on Titan editor sentenced to 11 years in prison after Supreme Court trial

The former editor of attack on Titan and other series at Kodansha, Park Jung-hyun, was sentenced to eleven years in prison for the murder of his wife. His testimony was deemed unreliable due to conflicting reports of the events.

Park (48), a former Kodansha editor who edited series such as attack on Titan And The seven deadly sinswas sentenced to 11 years in prison on July 18, 2024, after the trial for the August 2016 murder of his wife was resumed. The Tokyo High Court ruled that Park strangled his 38-year-old wife in their home in Bunkyo City, Japan. He was first arrested in January 2017; prosecutors initially asked for 15 years.

Park’s case was full of changing stories. He said his wife fell down the stairs during initial questioning before saying it was suicide. Notably, he did not tell the arriving ambulance his suicide claim. His wife was found at the bottom of the stairs, with the cause of death determined to be asphyxiation. When Park’s suicide statement was challenged in court, he claimed his wife was violent and had a knife. He stated that bloodstains in the bedroom – away from where her body was found – were because he had to hold her down before leaving the room. He stated that he heard a noise outside the door and later found out that she had taken her own life.

The Tokyo Reporter adds that Park’s reasoning for the contradictory account was that he could not tell his children that their mother had committed suicide. After the verdict was announced on July 18, the judge found that Park’s reasoning was not credible, adding, “It is too sudden and unnatural that the woman lost consciousness, then moved so much that she made a noise, and then committed suicide.”

Park has stated that he will appeal the verdict, adding: “It is wrong. I will make sure it is corrected.” His lawyer believes the crux of the guilty verdict lies in the unreliability of Park’s testimony, rather than strong evidence of the murder. “I can’t help but suspect that this is the crux of the guilty verdict. This is extremely unfair and I am outraged,” he said. He was supported by Park’s mother, who added: “My son got along well with his wife and he took care of his children. My children believed that their father would come home today, but I don’t know how to explain the verdict to them. It is too cruel.”

Park worked for Kodansha since 1999 and was the first editor-in-chief of attack on TitanContinuation story Bessatsu Shonen MagazineHe later became an editor at Weekly Morning in June 2016. He had already been tried twice; the Supreme Court ordered this latest retrial at the Tokyo High Court after finding that not all the evidence had been properly examined.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun, Tokyo Reporter