Japanese True Crime

Sada Abe (May 28, 1905 - death date unknown) gained notoriety in Japan for killing her lover and removing his genitals in May 1936, an incident that shocked the nation and became a cultural phenomenon.

Born in Tokyo to a prosperous tatami shop owner, Sada was the youngest of eight children. She had developmental difficulties, unable to speak until age four, and later became known for her temperamental nature. As the much younger sib...

Hirai Gonpachi (1655 – December 5, 1679) was a samurai from Tottori Prefecture, Japan, known for his tragic life and criminal activities. Born into a low-ranking samurai family, Gonpachi gained a reputation for his good looks, bravery, and swordsmanship. At the age of 16, he killed a fellow clansman during a dispute and fled to Edo (now Tokyo) to escape punishment.

In Edo, Gonpachi encountered a 15-year-old beauty named Komurasaki, ...

This Wikipedia entry details the life and crimes of Kiyoshi Okubo, a Japanese serial killer who murdered eight women in 1971. It outlines his early life, including prior offenses of rape and robbery, leading up to the brief but horrific period of his consecutive murders. The article covers his arrest, confession obtained through psychological tactics, trial where he was uncooperative, and the eventual death sentence and execution. ...

The provided text, primarily excerpts from a Japanese Wikipedia page on the Norio Nagayama serial murders, details the series of four fatal shootings committed by the then-19-year-old Nagayama in 1968 across four Japanese prefectures. The entries meticulously recount the events of each crime, the subsequent investigation and arrest of Nagayama, and the protracted legal proceedings that followed. A significant portion of the text is...

Shoko Asahara: Cult Leader and Terrorist

Shoko Asahara (born Chizuo Matsumoto, 1955-2018) founded the infamous Aum Shinrikyo cult. Despite partial blindness, he was ambitious, exploring religion after early business ventures and an arrest for selling unlicensed drugs. His charismatic leadership and apocalyptic teachings attracted followers, evolving into radical ideologies justifying violence to establish a new order.

Under A...

The Zama Serial Murder Case: A Tragic Crime in Modern Japan

In 2017, a disturbing case shocked Japan and the world. In Zama, a city near Tokyo, police discovered the remains of nine people—eight women and one man—in a small apartment. The man who lived there, 27 years old at the time, was arrested and later admitted to killing all nine victims.

The case began when police investigated the disappearance of a young woman. Their search l...

The Niigata Girl Confinement Case: A Story of Survival and Awareness

In 1990, in a quiet town in Niigata, Japan, a 9-year-old girl disappeared while walking home from school. Despite large search efforts by police and local people, she could not be found. For over nine years, no one knew where she was or what had happened to her.

In reality, she had been kidnapped by a man who took her to his home and locked her in a small room on th...

​In April 1995, Hideo Murai, a top executive of the Japanese religious group Aum Shinrikyo, was fatally stabbed outside the group's Tokyo headquarters. Murai, known for his scientific expertise, played a significant role in the group's activities. The assailant, Hiroyuki Jo, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, attacked Murai in front of numerous reporters and police officers. Jo was immediately apprehended and later sen...

In November 2009, a tragic event occurred in the city of Matsue, located in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. A 19-year-old female university student was reported missing after failing to return home from her part-time job. Her disappearance led to an extensive search by local authorities and volunteers.

Approximately one week later, the search came to a sorrowful conclusion when her dismembered remains were discovered in a mountainous are...

In February 2021, a tragic event occurred in Asahikawa, a city in Hokkaido, Japan. A 14-year-old girl was found frozen to death in a public park after going missing during a bitterly cold night. This heartbreaking case shocked many people across Japan and later became a national topic of discussion because of the events that led to her death.

The girl had been a student at Hokusei Junior High School. Soon after she entered the schoo...

In December 1999, a 33-year-old officer of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force visited his family in Tokushima Prefecture, a quiet region in western Japan. On December 25, he suddenly went missing, and two days later, his body was found near a river under a bridge in the nearby city of Anan. The local police quickly concluded that he had died by suicide.

However, the officer’s family and some journalists noticed several strange deta...

The Mishima Women's Junior College Student Burning Murder Case occurred in January 2002 in Mishima City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. A 29-year-old man, identified as H, abducted a 19-year-old female junior college student, referred to as A, while she was returning home. He took her to a secluded area where he sexually assaulted her. Subsequently, under the pretext that she was hindering his use of stimulants, he decided to kill her...

The Hiratsuka Five Bodies Case refers to a shocking crime that came to light in May 2006 in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan. The discovery of five bodies, including those of infants, led to an investigation that uncovered a decades-old mystery. The case was linked to the 1984 disappearance of a six-year-old boy, whose remains were later identified among the deceased. The primary suspect, a woman named O, was initially arrested for the m...

On July 8, 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was tragically shot and killed while giving a speech in Nara, Japan. This happened during a campaign for a parliamentary election.

The person who shot him, Tetsuya Yamagami, was arrested at the scene. He used a homemade gun. His stated reason for the attack was a strong grudge against the Unification Church, a religious group. Yamagami believed that Abe had close ties to thi...

The core motivation behind the killings was F's belief that "traitors should be eliminated". This logic drove him to kill X, and later the mother and daughters who rejected him. The court noted that even if F felt slighted by the victims, his decision to kill was "hasty and selfish" with no mitigating circumstances, and the acts were premeditated and brutal. The Fujisawa mother and daughters were A (16 years old), B (13 years old),...

In 2011, a terrible crime happened in Tokai City, Japan. A young woman was kidnapped and later murdered. The case shocked many people in Japan because it was a cruel and unexpected crime.

The victim was a 20-year-old woman who lived in Tokai City. One day, while she was walking home, a man suddenly took her by force and put her in his car. The man was a stranger to her. After kidnapping her, he harmed her and later ended her life. ...