google translator: Media to promote a bad thing.

Cult hero: Tatsuya Ichihashi (back of picture) has attracted hundreds of fans after being arrested for the murder of British student Lindsay Ann Hawker

Social networking sites Mixi and 2Channel have been innundated with admirers who have awarded him elevated nicknames, such as Ichi-sama (Lord Ichi) and Tobo Oji (the fugitive prince).

Some content themselves with lavishing him with praise while others have fantasised about having sex with him. Bizarrely, some supporters claim he could not have murdered Miss Hawker, 22, as he looks ‘too kind.’

‘When he was arrested, I thought his dishevelled black hair and the line along his neck to his jaw made him look so sexy,’ one blogger wrote. ’He’s really cool!’, another added.

Lindsay Ann Hawker

The Gyotoku  police station where Ichihashi is awaiting trial has also been struggling to deal with a slew of fan mail -  Masumi Kurata, an expert on criminals and cults in Japan, said: ‘From his image on wanted posters, Ichihashi seemed like a hunk, and I suppose this had a strong impact on young women. They see him as a man of mystery, like a hero in a romantic comic story.

Aya Matsumoto, a clinical psychologist, added: ‘It was a very cruel crime, but it seems that people here are treating it almost as if it were entertainment.

‘It seems to me that anyone who appears on television here in Japan is immediately elevated to some sort of star and these people are unable or unwilling to associate Ichihashi with Miss Hawker’s death.

Miss Hawker’s family, from Brandon, in Warwickshire, have fought a desperate battle to bring their daughter’s killer to justice.

dailymail.co.uk