<figure id="attachment_386710" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-386710" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="11633dc5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/08/7d2aeeb7b164be046e15a767013907ce.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-386710" class="wp-caption-text">Xko competed in the national speed skating competition in middle school. On the right is her father (August 15, &#8217;14 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<p> What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In &#8220;Playback Friday,&#8221; we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we bring you <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;In-Depth Report: How a 16-year-old Tokyo University aspirant dismembered his classmates&#8221;</span> from the August 15, 2002 issue, published 10 years ago.</p>
<p> In the early morning of July 27, 2002, the body of a friend, a classmate from junior and senior high school, was found decapitated in the room of a first-year female <span class="strongInContent">high</span> school student at one of the prefecture&#8217;s leading preparatory schools in Sasebo City. Why did the arrested student lay a hand on her friend? Various speculations were rife over her family environment and the &#8220;incidents&#8221; she had committed in the past (the descriptions in parentheses below are taken from past articles).</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> The body&#8217;s neck and left wrist were severed. &#8230;&#8230;</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> We can&#8217;t think about it yet because it happened so suddenly.</span></p>
<p> The parents of A (15 at the time), who was killed, expressed their feelings through their lawyer at the time: A went out a little after 2 p.m. on July 26, 2002, and did not return home until 11 p.m. after texting that <span class="strongInContent">she would be home around 7 p</span>. <span class="strongInContent">m.</span> A week ago, A&#8217;s mother told the parents that she had been in the hospital for a week, but that she had not seen A since then. Her mother had been told by Mr. A a week earlier that he was going to play with a classmate, X (then 16), on that day. The shocking situation then came to light. The situation at the time was as follows.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Shortly after 3:00 a.m., a police officer and Xoko&#8217;s parents visited Xoko, who was living alone in an apartment in Sasebo City.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> She kept a blank expression on her face. The policeman entered the room. There, they found Mr. A&#8217;s body lying on the bed in a state of utter disrepair.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Her neck and left wrist had been severed, and her stomach had been cut open wide. Near the bed was a saw, two types of hammers, and a kitchen knife; it appeared that Xko had struck Mr. A in the back of the head with the hammer, strangled him with a string to death, and then dismembered his body in bed. The murder weapon was purchased in the neighborhood in advance, and the crime is seen as premeditated rather than impulsive. Moreover, there was no blood on Xoko&#8217;s clothes. For some reason, she seemed to have changed her clothes after the murder.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The arrested Xko was not distraught and admitted the crime, giving a nonchalant statement at the Sasebo police station.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I wanted to kill someone. I wanted to look inside their bodies. I don&#8217;t have any urami.&#8221;</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;incident&quot; from 4 years ago was covered up."></div>
<p>Xko and the deceased Ms. A were said to have been walking along the local shopping street 5-6 hours before the murder, and to have shared a common hobby of anime. The Sasebo City Hall official said that the news reminded him of an incident that happened four years ago.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> A close acquaintance of mine asked me for advice,&#8221; he said. The contents of the consultation were as follows: &#8216;At an elementary school in Sasebo City, there was a girl who put chlorine bleach in the miso soup served at school lunch, causing her classmates to vomit violently. It happened not just once, but multiple times. This is a serious problem, and I want you to make it public.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The girl who mixed the bleach was X child, who was in the 6th grade of elementary school at the time. At the time, X&#8217;s parents scrambled to keep the incident from becoming public knowledge. A city hall official continued.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Aiko&#8217;s father is a lawyer well-known in the prefecture for his dirty tricks. Her mother was a member of the Sasebo City Board of Education. The mother got down on her knees and apologized at the parents&#8217; meeting. Most of the other parents did not want to make a big deal out of it, and in the end, the matter was buried in the dark without being reported to the school board or the city council. One acquaintance who came to me for advice also said, &#8220;I want you to stop publicizing it. When I asked him why, he said, &#8216;A settlement was reached between the parents of the victims at the time. If I had verified the matter properly at that time, this incident might not have happened. The parents&#8217; attempt to hide the trouble may have led to irreparable consequences.</span></p>
<p> X child&#8217;s parents were prominent local figures, and she herself was a high achiever. Her grades were top class in both elementary and junior high school, and she even applied to study at the University of Tokyo after entering high school. In elementary school, she won prizes in piano competitions, and in junior high school, she represented the prefecture in speed skating. In junior high school, she participated in the national speed skating competition as a representative of the prefecture and won a prize at the prefectural art exhibition. She was truly an outstanding young woman who excelled in both the literary and military arts.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Attacking her father in his sleep with a metal bat"></div>
<p>However, the year before the incident, an unfortunate event had happened to Xoko. Her mother, who was <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;very fond of her mother&#8221;</span> (a neighbor), died suddenly of cancer in October 2001. A few months later, her father started dating another woman and remarried in May &#8217;14. There was testimony that Xko was puzzled by the fact that his father had brought another woman into his life so soon after his mother&#8217;s death. Then, on March 2, 2002, an &#8220;incident&#8221; also occurred.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;Just as his father was starting a relationship with a woman, Ako attacked his father in his sleep with a metal bat and beat him until his skull was caved in and broke his teeth. Perhaps feeling that this was too much for him to handle, the father told those around him that his daughter was going to study in Australia.</span></p>
<p> When Xko entered high school in April 2002, she left her parents&#8217; home and began living alone in a 50,000 yen studio apartment near her father&#8217;s law office. He attended classes in high school for only about three days per semester. He told people around him that he was preparing to study abroad, but he was often seen by neighbors lounging around in the daytime. Did the death of his mother cause him to lose sight of his dream of going to the University of Tokyo, leading him to commit this murder?</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" He confided that he wanted to kill people."></div>
<p>On August 4, &#8217;14, X child&#8217;s father revealed the following details about the events leading up to the incident through his lawyer.</p>
<p> After the beating of his father four months prior to the incident, Xoko was sent to a psychiatrist, and he started living alone because his father was warned by the doctor that <span class="strongInContent">his life was in danger if he slept in the same house</span>. Also, on July 23, three days before the incident, on the way to the psychiatrist&#8217;s office, Xko confided to her stepmother in a serious tone that she <span class="strongInContent">wanted to kill someone.</span> She discussed this with the doctor, but he did not take her very seriously. She also asked him to hospitalize her the day before the incident, but this did not happen. In the end, they reached an agreement to contact the child consultation service, but they were unable to discuss the matter because the staff was not available that day outside of working hours.</p>
<p> On October 5, &#8217;14, X child&#8217;s father was found hanged in his home. Although there was no suicide note, it is believed to be a suicide.</p>
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<p> On July 13, 2003, the Nagasaki Family Court decided to send the child to a juvenile medical care facility for protective custody. The summary of the decision declared that <span class="strongInContent">the</span> crime <span class="strongInContent">was</span><span class="strongInContent">&#8220;</span><span class="strongInContent">a pleasure killing in which a defenseless friend who trusted the girl was suddenly attacked in order to satisfy his desire to murder and dissect the corpse, and he took her life while inflicting unimaginable pain and abuse of the corpse, trampling on human dignity</span>. <span class="strongInContent">The</span> court also stated that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;ASD did not directly lead to delinquency, but environmental factors also had an influence.</span></p>
<p> The abstract of the decision revealed that in the fifth grade, he was attracted to a dead cat he saw while leaving school, and began to kill cats. Then, in the sixth grade, there was an incident in which a foreign substance was mixed into school lunches, but there was no ongoing counseling or anything like that. While he made close friends and adjusted to school as he entered junior high school, he began not only to kill cats but also to dismember them, and gradually began to think that <span class="strongInContent">he wanted to kill people</span>. He also learned that he would be more likely to face criminal penalties after the age of 16, so he decided to carry out the murder and dismantling before he turned 16.</p>
<p> In July 2009, when Child X turned 23 years old, the director of the facility where he was placed applied to the Nagasaki Family Court for continued placement. The Asahi Shimbun reported on September 15 that the family court had decided to allow the continuation of the detention until 2012 on the grounds that the child had a severe mental disorder and needed to continue specialized correctional education. According to the law, the decision made by the family court will cease to be effective when Child X turns 26 in the summer of &#8217;24 and will not be extended.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" [Image: A photo of the real face of Child X"></div>
<figure id="attachment_386711" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-386711" style="width: 1887px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fd7204ea"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/08/eea491003c128db5ca95253d716ac9a1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-386711" class="wp-caption-text">Xko receives the troupe flag after being selected to participate in the National Athletic Meet when she was in junior high school. He was not very active in skating (August 15, &#8217;14 issue).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_386712" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-386712" style="width: 1503px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="995480d8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/08/88ba7561d7a89cfe015a62dbceba6ad0.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-386712" class="wp-caption-text"> When he participated in the national competition, his father (left) also competed in the adult men&#8217;s division (August 15, &#8217;14 issue).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_386713" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-386713" style="width: 2269px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c88a4160"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/08/73e87156c0aa707f56f12dc9079d2fc3.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-386713" class="wp-caption-text"> When the car carrying Mr. A&#8217;s coffin left the funeral home on July 29, 2002, many of his classmates who attended the ceremony saw him off in tears (August 15, 2002 issue).</figcaption></figure>


 In this issue of Playback, we look back at what we reported 10, 20, and 30 years ago. This time, we introduce the "Sasebo High School Murder Case" that took place in July 2002. What was the "background" behind the murder of a 16-year-old high school girl with excellent grades?

Playback &#8217;14] &#8220;I wanted to look inside her body,&#8221; a high school girl who murdered her classmate, &#8220;Signal&#8221; just before the murder.

Playback ’14] “I wanted to look inside her body,” a high school girl who murdered her classmate, “Signal” just before the murder.

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