Musical student Mia Gormandy was worried about the response she would get from the Japanese when she returned to that country following the unsolved murder of Asami Nagakiya.

Asami, 30, was strangled to death and her body dumped under a tree at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Carnival Tuesday, February 9. Her body was discovered the following morning. Her murder remains unsolved, although a suspect is known to the police.

Mia wrote on Facebook:

“While many Japanese pannists consider Asami’s death an isolated event and a “crime of passion,” they do think that there are major cultural differences that can lead to dangerous situations.”

That is what Mia Gormandy found out when she returned to Japan on March 15, 2016, to continue her dissertation research on the steel band communities in Japan for her PhD in Musicology at Florida State University.

“I returned to Japan without any idea of what to expect. Were my friends going to lose trust in me as a Trinidadian? Would they ever return to Trinidad? Perhaps they will never play steel pan again and discourage others from doing so. “Was someone really going to try to kill me for revenge? These were thoughts that stormed my mind on my way to Japan as I reflected on the times I spent with Asami. When I arrived, I quickly realized that I was wrong and I didn’t have anything to worry about,” she wrote in her blog for Musicology Now. “I had many conversations with Japanese musicians who regularly visit Trinidad.

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  • Wayne Cezair.

    I do agree with your last comment.

    • Did anyone hear that the Japanese people want this case to remain cold? I did.

      • Tell us more nah Cecil!!! Ah waiting for NEW YORK election results and I have time to read the forum. Where is yuh pardner Cedric Mcintosh?

      • Not me!!!

        Nagakiya’s autopsy was carried out by pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov at the Forensic Science Centre, St James. However,  Alexandrov referred all questions from the Guardian to the Japanese Embassy.

        http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2016-02-11/two-quizzed-asamis-death

  • I don't think that Asami's death will deter the other Japanese pannists who have been coming here for years from returning, but they will be now much more careful about where, when and how they conduct themselves, that is to say where they go, when they go and with whom. Just as we do ourselves. They will now be more aware of potential dangers that might not have crossed their minds before.

    For first time visitors that might be a different thing as news reports can be more scary that real experiences, so some might be deterred by what they might have read, unless they are encouraged to come by the experienced visitors.

  • ... anxiously awaiting the arrest and persecution of Asami????

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