Former Tokyo Jail Hairdresser Reveals the Human Faces of Death Row Inmates as Only I Could See Them

The book is titled “Barber of Death Row Inmates” and is published by Saizusha. I couldn’t sleep well the night before, thinking about what would happen if they took away my scissors and attacked me.

Mr. Gari served at the Tokyo Detention Center from 19 to 21, where he was in charge of barbering. After being incarcerated for theft and other crimes, he was selected as one of the few barbers because he had a national license as a hairdresser. In prison, they called him “Gari” for “trimming” his head, and this nickname stuck.

At the end of May, he published a book about his experiences, “Shikenjin no Barber” (The Barber of Death Row Prisoners) (Saizusha Publishing Co., Ltd.). He looks back on those special days.

The first death row inmate I was assigned to was Tomohiro Kato, who was involved in the Akihabara street ripper case. Before the haircut, I had heard that he could become agitated over the slightest thing, but when I met him, he was very quiet, with a hunched back and a downcast look on his face.
I will never forget the first time I clipped his hair. I put the blade in from the right side of my forehead, and a nasty perspiration started to form still from all over my body. During the haircut, I was looking at Kato through the mirror, and he was staring at me for the entire five minutes or so of the cut, not moving an inch. I felt an unbearable fear, and I couldn’t stop sweating.

Mr. Gari was in charge of Kato’s haircut a total of 10 times during the two years before his release from prison. The fear remained until the end, but gradually faded with each visit. At the same time, I began to notice a change.

Around the summer of ’21, alopecia areata became noticeable on his head. He seemed to be scratching his scalp, and the number of bleeding areas also increased. At the time, Kato was said to be close to execution, so I think the stress must have affected him. It was the moment when I felt that even Kato, who had given me the impression of being somewhat inhuman, was afraid of death.

In the fall of 2009, a few months before Mr. Gari’s release from prison, I was in charge of him, and we exchanged some words. Private conversations with the barber not related to haircutting are prohibited, but on this occasion, the prison guard present did not stop him, he said.

The prison guard present at the time did not stop him. He asked me, ‘Um, is your hair thinning? I think he wanted to ask me about my condition while I was there. To avoid shocking him, I replied, ‘No change,’ and he just said, ‘I see. It was a short exchange, but I thought he trusted me a little.

There were other moments when Kato’s human side came through.

Once, I damaged the back of Kato’s ear with clippers, causing it to bleed. I was chilled to the bone because a mistake in work is an act that can lead to punishment. …… Kato was aware of it, but he didn’t complain. Inmates are under a lot of stress, and most of them don’t tolerate these kinds of mistakes. I had heard that Kato was out of control when he was turned on, but for some reason he let me off the hook. In hindsight, it may have been his way of showing kindness.

Kato was executed in July 2010. Gari, who had already been released from prison at the time, said that when he saw the news, this event was the first thing that came to mind.

An Unforgettable Thank You

The Tokyo Detention Center houses about 60 death row inmates who have been sentenced to death. Through his hairdressing business, Mr. Gari has had contact with nearly 40 of them. One of them is Hiroshi Sakaguchi, 77, a former member of the United Red Army who has been in prison for about 50 years for the “Asama-Sanso Incident.

He was on urination therapy and had pee in his hair. As soon as I entered the room, a strong smell of ammonia hit my nose. The scissors and combs were immediately sticky with urine. The first day I was in charge, I couldn’t get dinner down my throat.

I also experienced physical terror. In 2004, the case of Daishi Shimizu (in custody), who killed four people in a room in a building in Tokyo as a result of a dispute within a fictitious billing scam group, was extremely difficult to handle.

The room was littered with trash, and he would lash out if he didn’t get his way. He was a well-known troublemaker in the detention center. He kept his hair long. The guards took him to the barbershop because it was unsanitary, but at the last minute he insisted that he didn’t want a haircut and became violent. But when the prison guard told him to do something, he had no choice but to do it. I kept praying that the work would somehow end peacefully.

Other prisoners he worked with included Sei Uematsu (34, incarcerated), the perpetrator of the “Tsukui-Yamayuri En Murder Case,” in which 45 people were killed or injured, and Takahiro Shiraishi (33, incarcerated), the perpetrator of the “Zama 9 Murder Case. When Shiraishi came to the barbershop, his hair had grown to his waist. He had no vitality, and he felt that “this is what happens to people who have given up on life.

On the other hand, the experience overturned his belief that death-row inmates are not like him and are not human beings. The first time he felt “humanness” besides Kato was when he came into contact with Toshihiko Iwama (who died in prison in August 2011), who had committed the “Manila Insurance Money Murder Case.

Iwama was a man who did not usually smile. But after he got a haircut, he crumpled his face and said, ‘Thank you very much. It was the first time I had ever felt that he thanked me from the bottom of his heart, and not just verbally. I realized that death row inmates, whom I had thought existed in a different world from mine, were human beings just the same. From then on, I began to think that I would do my job with sincerity and face them as I had dealt with ordinary customers in the outside world while barbering.”

Even after his release from prison, Gari says he has never forgotten his days in the detention center. He is now back in his hometown, working in the real estate management business. He is now back in his hometown, working in real estate management and leading a new life.

(Some names in the text are omitted.)

From the June 28, 2024 issue of FRIDAY