Mother of student murdered in Japan receives compensation

Jiang Qiulian, the mother of a Chinese female student killed in Japan in 2016, said in an online video on Thursday that she has received the compensation of 696,000 yuan ($98,341.2) from her daughter's former roommate and is connecting with organizations to donate the money.

The compensation mainly consists of 496,000 yuan for the mother's financial losses and 200,000 yuan for her mental anguish over the death of her daughter Jiang Ge.

The mother said she thanked the judges from the Chengyang District People's Court who helped enforce the execution of the ruling four times to get the full compensation from Liu Nuanxi, her daughter's former roommate.

However, the mother was not happy that the majority of the money was possibly not to be paid by Liu Nuanxi, but from netizens. Liu gained benefits from posting her daughter's stories.

The dispute between Jiang Qiulian and Liu began on Nov 3, 2016, when Jiang Ge, 24, was stabbed to death in the hallway outside her apartment in Tokyo by Chen Shifeng, Liu's ex-boyfriend.

Earlier that day, Liu had quarreled with Chen. Armed with a knife, Chen later hid in the apartment building and waited for the women to return from an evening out. When they returned, Chen began arguing with them and chased them.

Liu ran in first and locked the door behind her, so neither Chen nor Jiang could enter. Chen stabbed Jiang in the neck multiple times before fleeing the scene. Jiang was taken to a hospital, where she died.

In 2017, a Tokyo court found Chen guilty of killing Jiang and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Jiang Qiulian was dissatisfied with the ruling and said Liu was also responsible for her daughter's death because she locked Jiang out of the apartment, putting her in a position to be attacked. She also expressed anger about misinformation that Liu posted about Jiang Ge on Sina Weibo.

In 2019, Jiang Qiulian filed the lawsuit against Liu, asking for 2 million yuan in compensation.

In January 2022, the Chengyang District People's Court in Shandong gave the verdict on the compensation and, on Dec 30, 2022, the Qingdao Intermediate People's Court in Shangdong rejected Liu's appeal and supported the verdict.

The courts both agreed that Liu was at fault and that she should bear the civil punishment because she had not informed Jiang Ge of the potential danger posed by Chen, who had intimidated Liu before, nor had she taken Jiang Ge's safety into account when she locked her out of the residence.

Earlier this year, Liu launched a fundraising drive on her Sina Weibo account L-N-X-wisteria to help with the payment, several days after she lost the lawsuit.

"What I need to pay is a large sum of money," she posted. "Every penny raised from the online platform will be used to pay the compensation ordered by the court."

Later, Liu's account L-N-X-wisteria was permanently banned from posting on Sina Weibo.