Okutama

Okutama is the distant place where Tadao Asai says he left Seizo Naemura’s body after killing him. Its significance lies in the way a remote disposal site becomes a delayed link between Naemura’s disappearance and the wider pattern of concealed violence in the case.

The body’s route

After killing Naemura, Tadao first hid the body in the bed of a truck in a parking lot. He wanted to dispose of it far away, which also explains the rental-car episode mentioned in the conversation. He later told Hiromi Asai that he had taken the body to Okutama.

Discovery and concealment

Tadao said that, about a week after the disposal, he saw a news report that an unidentified body had been found in Okutama. The report suggested that the body had been discovered, but its identity was not established in the account. Tadao’s recollection therefore links the reported discovery to his own disposal of Naemura’s body without describing any further investigation or identification.

Place in the case

The revelation comes when Hiromi asks Tadao where he put Naemura’s body. She already has a strong idea of the answer, but asks directly; Tadao apologizes, acknowledging that she had liked Naemura, then identifies Okutama as the disposal site. The exchange makes the location evidence of Tadao’s attempt to keep the killing hidden and ties Naemura’s fate to the broader sequence of crimes, including Tadao’s admission that Michiko Oshitani was the second person he had killed by strangulation.