Kobe High School Student Stabbing Victim’s Father Confesses His Regret, Quiet Anger at Perpetrator Protected by “Juvenile Law

Thirteen years ago, a horrific incident occurred on a street in Kita Ward, Kobe City. At around 10:45 p.m. on October 4, 2010, Shota Tsutsumi, a high school sophomore, was chatting with a female student he knew in front of a vending machine placed in a residential area. A man …… sat a short distance away and stared at them. He’s a creepy guy,” he said. Shota and the others were suspicious.

Suddenly, the man approached them without saying a word and attacked them with a knife. Run! and the woman’s screams echoed around the scene. Shota, who had been stabbed in the head and neck, died the following day at the hospital where he was taken.

Eleven years later, in August 2009, the perpetrator of the “Kobe High School Student Stabbing Incident” was suddenly arrested. He was charged after a psychiatric evaluation, but since he was 17 years old at the time of the crime, his real name has not been reported to this day.

The murderer, X, was living near the crime scene at the time, and the knife that was used as the murder weapon was soon discovered. Despite this, the fact that the police did not make an arrest for more than 10 years is said to be one of the reasons for the initial police investigation. When the incident first occurred, the police proceeded with the investigation on the basis of a grudge. In reality, however, it was a completely street crime” (reporter from the society section of a national newspaper).

Before his arrest, X had been blabbing to those around him that he had killed people. The fact that the DNA type found on Shota’s clothes matched X’s was the decisive factor in his arrest.

Shota’s father, Satoshi Tsutsumi, quietly exuded anger.

The perpetrator has been on the run for more than 10 years and is now over 30 years old. But even so, he is protected by the Juvenile Law because he was 17 years old at the time of the crime, and no details about the perpetrator have been revealed. It is inexplicable.”

Late last year, Mr. Toshi was contacted by the prosecutor’s office and told that X’s trial was scheduled to finally begin in June of this year.

He was told that a jury trial would be held over a period of three days. A typical jury trial lasts one week, so it is obviously very short. The families of the victims were not consulted. I could not believe that the whole picture of the case could be revealed in just three days, so on January 16 this year, I went to the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office to ask for more details.

Even so, the trial schedule remained unchanged.

I want the trial to reveal the details of his life as a fugitive for more than 10 years,” he said. I think three days is far from enough time for that, but the prosecutors pointed out that ‘it has nothing to do with this trial. I was left feeling unexplained.”

During the course of the arrest and prosecution, X’s surprising motive for committing the crime and his behavior while on the run were also revealed. It was also revealed that around ’17, he had written a novel in which a high school student was stabbed to death.

That’s not all. A social networking account that is said to belong to X was also found on the Internet. There, a number of eerie images were posted, including a figure standing against a dark background titled “DEATH DRIVE,” and a woman covered in blood with the title “DEATH DRIVE.

Toshi speaks in a matter-of-fact tone.

‘The killer has not uttered a word of remorse since his arrest, and we haven’t heard from his guardians. But …… the time to be indignant about such things has passed. I’m going to make sure they pay for their crimes exactly according to the law.”

What will X have to say at his trial in June? Toshi said, “Even if the trial is over, there is no end to the victims,” he said.

From the February 17, 2023 issue of FRIDAY