Kana Washino Was Fucking Beautiful

The other day, a popular Japanese news blog revealed that, according to information obtained on Shohei Komori’s twitter profile, the suspected murderer describes his preference in women as “でブス専”.  In other words, the man at the center of an unproven love triangle that left his wife jealous enough to kill her rival, Kana Washino, wrote on a social media profile that he preferred to date “fat and ugly” women.  And this was all so relevant, apparently, that it merited a full, syndicated news story.  Here is an excerpt.

I’m just going to translate this word-for-word, as I do not have the stomach to paraphrase it:

“As anyone can tell by looking at pictures of the victim, Kana Washino, and the suspect, Kazumi Komori, the other suspect, Shohei Komori had a preference for fat and ugly women.  There is a tendency for men who lack self-confidence to favor fat and ugly women.  Shohei’s friends from high school also confirmed that the suspect’s preference for fat and ugly girls dates back to his youth.”

Jesus.  There is so much wrong with this paragraph I don’t even know where to start.

“As anyone can tell,” by looking at their pictures?  Really?  That’s funny, because when I look at Kana Washino’s photo, I see an 18-year-old girl.  I see a teenaged murder victim.  I see a high school senior with talent for illustration who was bound for university,  whose classmates described  her as studious and kind.  I see somebody’s little girl: a daughter, a granddaughter, a neighbor, a student and a friend.  Not once had it crossed my mind that the man suspected in her murder preferred fat and ugly women.  I honestly do not even see the connection at all.  Kana Washino was fucking adorable.

On to the second sentence: that is, the “tendency for men who lack self-confidence to favor fat and ugly women.”  Seriously, a lack of self-confidence would be the least of Shohei’s problems.  I mean, any man who insults the women with whom he is romantically involved by calling them as “fat and ugly” on twitter, has much bigger problems than that.  I would say, instead, that there is a tendency for men who are sociopaths to favor verbally abuse their romantic partners on public forums.

So this charming characteristic dates back to his youth.  Blah, blah blah.  What does he look like anyway?  What kind of juicy, tasteless assumptions can we make from his scowling profile, being led into the police station in handcuffs?  None.  Nothing.  Of course not.

So this is the kind of reporting that is typical of a country that has all the technology and resources of a G7 country, but none of the progress towards universal human rights and equality that often accompanies that status.  Most people already know that Japan has a notoriously bad record on gender equality.

In 2021, Japan ranked 120th out 153 countries surveyed, behind Angola, Guinea and Sri Lanka, among (many, many) others.  But those are all all numbers.  If you can stomach it, read the above news excerpt again.  This, this is what being 120 looks and feels like, day-to-day, on a visceral level.

So I’ll say it again, if no one else will: Kana Washino was fucking beautiful.