Tokyo District Court becomes the setting for a brief encounter between Jake Adelstein and Tadamasa Goto, bringing the threat surrounding Goto’s trial into an ordinary courthouse corridor. The trial’s not-guilty verdict, a detective’s warning about witnesses, and reporters’ retreat from Goto converge there; for a moment, the court’s public space holds only Adelstein, Goto, and Goto’s bodyguard.

The Trial and Adelstein’s Attendance

On March 7, Adelstein went to Goto’s trial at Tokyo District Court, an act that angered the National Police Agency. Police working on the case told him that the main witness had been intimidated to the point of refusing to testify. Adelstein entered the courtroom for only a few minutes and sat directly behind the witness.

He had to leave halfway through the proceedings because he was not supposed to be there. Rather than leave the courthouse, he waited in the hall outside, where the press had gathered. The distinction between the courtroom and corridor shaped what he could see: he missed the rest of the proceedings but remained present for the verdict and its immediate aftermath.

Verdict and Warning

After the not-guilty verdict was announced to reporters in the hall, one of the detectives working on the case warned Adelstein that those who had testified against Goto would disappear and then be killed one by one. The detective shook his head. The warning connected the reported intimidation of the absent witness to a broader danger facing people who had testified, without establishing what would later happen to them.

Goto in the Courthouse

Immediately afterward, Goto emerged from the courtroom with his bodyguard and headed toward the elevators. He did not use the back exit, and his departure involved no fanfare. Reporters watched him but did not follow or approach him. When Goto’s lawyer appeared in the hall, they hurried toward the lawyer and away from Goto.

For a brief moment, the press had dispersed and the corridor contained only Adelstein, Goto, and the bodyguard. It was the only time Adelstein ever met Goto face-to-face. The encounter gives the courthouse scene its particular force: the trial had ended in a public acquittal, yet the people in the hall behaved as though proximity to Goto carried its own risk. Tokyo District Court thus marks both a legal proceeding and the setting of Adelstein’s sole direct encounter with the man.