Chinese national arrested as third suspect in Osaka gang rape case

Osaka police have arrested a third suspect in connection with a horrific home invasion and gang rape last month, with the latest detainee being a 23-year-old Chinese national who has confessed to the crime.

Li Bo-lun, a 23-year-old Chinese vocational school student from Katsuragi City, Nara Prefecture, was taken into custody on Saturday after surveillance footage near the crime scene revealed his involvement. 

He joins two Japanese men—44-year-old Takashi Yamashita and 32-year-old Takashi Soma—who were previously arrested for the attack.

The brutal assault occurred in mid-June at an apartment in Osaka Prefecture. The three men allegedly followed a woman in her 20s into the building late at night, forced their way into her apartment, and threatened her with what appeared to be a knife before tying her hands and sexually assaulting her. 

The victim sustained minor injuries to her wrists.

During the attack, a male resident returned home and interrupted the crime, only to be threatened with the same weapon. The assailants then stripped him and bound his hands and feet.

Investigators revealed that the apartment building had restricted access, but security footage showed Li following another resident inside before loitering near the entrance for about 20 minutes, apparently scouting for a victim.

Shockingly, the three suspects reportedly did not know each other’s real names and had connected via social media with the explicit intent of sexually assaulting a woman. 

On the day of the attack, they referred to each other only by single-letter nicknames.

Li admitted to police that he had long been interested in sexual violence and described how the three men, sharing the same disturbing motive, targeted a random woman.