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Police: Japanese journalist died from drinking binge

By Chen Hong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-11 08:51

SHENZHEN: A preliminary investigation by police in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, revealed on Friday that a sound recorder for Japanese broadcaster NHK died in the city from excessive drinking.

Moriyama Shiyouta, 31, was found dead at 8:40 am on Thursday in his hotel room in the city's Jinwan District, where he and his colleagues had been staying for a week

He had been drinking heavily at a dinner the previous evening, according to the district's press office.

"The coroner found vomit in his mouth and nasal cavity. The police said he died from suffocation while drunk," Zhang Hongmei, a district government spokeswoman told China Daily on Friday.

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The report has been handed to the public security bureau of Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, the local foreign affairs office has informed the Japanese Consulate-General in Guangzhou, Zhang said.

Shiyouta and three colleagues from NHK were working on a documentary about the Japanese navy's invasion of Zhuhai during World War II, in which it massacred around 6,000 people in Sanzao, Jinwan District in 1938.

Arriving on April 3, the four-member crew had interviewed the survivors and the family members of the war victims, Zhang said.

The production had received official approval.

On Wednesday night, a total of 15 people, including the four Japanese journalists, went for dinner, and drank strong Chinese liquor.

Nong Weixiong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who had accompanied the Japanese journalists during the interviews, said they drank a lot.

Shiyouta, who was exhausted after several days of hard work, was unwell when he returned to his hotel, Guangzhou Daily cited Nong as saying.

The Japanese Consulate-General in Guangzhou made no comment about the incident on Friday.