Taiwanese celebrity Makiyo recently made the headlines when it was reported her Japanese friend Takateru Tomoyori had assaulted a cab driver and she had done nothing to prevent the beating.
According to the Taiwanese media, a video of Makiyo and Takateru beating up the taxi driver had surfaced.
In the 50-second recording, Takateru was seen grabbing the taxi driver, whose surname is Lin, by his collar, before throwing him onto the ground and kicking him in the head.
Later, a woman wearing a white coat joined in the beating and stamped on Lin. During the attack, Takateru tried to stop the woman. He also asked two other female friends, who were standing by the roadside to flag for another cab.
However, the two women were too petrified to move.
The woman in the white coat then landed another kick on Lin. Takateru also kicked the man a few more times. Finally, the group left in another taxi.
From the video, it was evident that Lin was kicked at least 15 times.
The recording contradicted the three women's -- Makiyo, Taiwanese celebrities Yaz and Vanessa -- statements, which claimed that only Takateru was involved in the beating.
Police confirmed that Makiyo was the woman in white, after careful inspection of the footage. She now faces a possible 12-year jail term. Yaz and Vanessa could spend up to seven years in jail for abetting.
According to the taxi driver, who drove the four of them back to their hotel, "They were talking and laughing when they got into the cab, and were speaking in a mixture of Chinese and Japanese. I didn't hear them talk about beating anyone. They smelt of alcohol, but they spoke coherently and did not look abnormal. They didn't look like they had just beaten someone."
On Feb 8, Lin's lawyer handed over a beige cap worn by the taxi driver.
"Takateru and his friends had not told the truth. The footprints on this cap will tell us if they had kicked Lin's head," he said.
Furthermore, as Makiyo and Takateru spoke in Japanese that night, the victim's family strongly believed that the celebrity had instigated her friend to beat Lin up.
Reporters tried to contact Makiyo, but her phone was switched off. The celebrity's mother refused to respond to the matter, saying, "I'm tired."
On the other hand, Vanessa's manager explained, "It's inconvenient for us to comment, because the case is ongoing."
Yaz's manager could not be reached for comments either.
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Injured taxi driver willing to forgive Makiyo, friends
2012/02/10 20:21:25
"Young people make mistakes from time to time," the cab driver surnamed Lin was quoted as saying by his lawyer Chou Wu-jung.
Lin added that he would certainly forgive Makiyo, 27, and Takateru Tomoyori "if they tell the truth in court and genuinelyregret their wrongdoings."
According to prosecutors, Makiyo hailed a taxi on Feb. 2 with two friends and Tomoyori. She reportedly refused to fasten her seat belt in the rear of the taxi in compliance with a rear seat belt law that went into effect the day before and an argument ensued. Tomoyori later allegedly assaulted and seriously injured the driver.
Recent video footage allegedly shows Makiyo participated in the attack.
Meanwhile, more than 20 taxi drivers from the Taipei Taxi Drivers' Association staged a protest outside the Interchange Association, Japan's representative office in Taiwan, on Friday. They held banners that said "Find the Truth" and "Violent Japanese Drinkers Not Welcome in Taiwan."
Although Lin's case was an isolated incident, Japan's association should say something about a Japanese national beating up a Taiwanese person in his own country, said Cheng Chuan-yi, an executive committee member of the taxi drivers' association.
He added that an apology from the association would be enough to calm things down and prevent the issue from escalating.
A representative from the Japanese association received the taxi drivers' letter of protest, but offered no comment on the incident.
(By Huang Yi-hahttp://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=201202100029
