Unmasking Heinous Criminals: The Niigata, Tottori, and Yamaguchi Cases
A person’s life, the environment they were raised in, their economic status, and their background are clearly reflected in their home. In that sense, it can be said that the home reveals another face of a person. (From “Killing House”, Introduction)
The room where the murderer lived until just before their arrest.
The environment in which a person has lived, their home, reflects their life. If crime is not only a result of an individual’s nature but also the environment surrounding them, then the home projects another side of the criminal.
In “Killing House” (Tetsujinsha), a work by nonfiction writer and photographer Takaki Yagisawa, he walks through the scenes of 42 events that shocked Japan in the past. The book covers cases ranging from pre-war incidents like the “Abe Sada Incident” to more recent cases such as the “Kobe Serial Child Murders,” the “Wakayama Poisoned Curry Incident,” and the “Niigata Girl Imprisonment Incident.”
Yagisawa recalls in the “Introduction” of the book his experience entering the home where the perpetrator of the “Gunma High School Girl Kidnapping and Murder Case,” which occurred in July 2002, had lived just before their arrest.
The house was a long, narrow row house with two tatami rooms and a kitchen. Dust filled the air, and clothes were scattered around, revealing the harshness of the life that had been lived there. The room held a family photo taken about ten years earlier by the perpetrator. The person in the photo appeared plump, a stark contrast to the gaunt figure of the man arrested later.
(omitted)
The house where the murderer had lived tells more about their personality than the crime scene where blood was spilled. It holds a rawness, and even without facing the perpetrator, one can feel their presence standing there, looking at you.
From the book, we introduce a portion of the scenes that Yagisawa walked through.
Niigata Girl Imprisonment Case: 1990–2000
In January 2000, a 37-year-old reclusive man was arrested for imprisoning a young girl in his home for 9 years and 2 months in Niigata. In November 1990, the man, then 37, had approached a 9-year-old girl on her way home from school, threatened her with a knife, and kidnapped her in his car. The man was sentenced to 14 years in prison and served his sentence. After completing his term, he later died in Chiba Prefecture.
Yagisawa visited the scene of the kidnapping a few months after the crime came to light. He interviewed the man’s mother, who allowed him to enter the house. Interestingly, she had never gone up to the second floor where the man had kept the girl for over nine years. The man would receive meals through the stairs, and he used plastic bags for waste.
Upon ascending the stairs, Yagisawa noticed that the floor surface in the hallway was worn out. This was due to the plastic bags containing waste, which had caused the floor to rot. When he opened the door, he saw a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a semi-double bed. The victim had lived a distorted existence on this bed, isolated from the outside world.
The man had created his own isolated world in that room, completely cut off from society.
Tottori Serial Mysterious Deaths Case: 2004–2009
The Tottori Serial Mysterious Deaths Case (2004–2009) involved a woman (35 years old at the time of her 2009 arrest) working as a hostess in a snack bar in Tottori City, whose association with six men led to their successive mysterious deaths. The woman was indicted for two cases of robbery and murder and was sentenced to death in 2017.
In the autumn of 2010, Takaki Yagisawa visited the prefab house where the woman had lived. On that day, with the landlord present, cleaning and sorting of the room was underway, and Yagisawa was allowed to enter. The room was filled with trash bags, and in a corner, a hamster was found lifeless in a birdcage. This disturbing scene was the result of the police collecting scattered belongings into bags.
The woman had lived there with her children, lovers, and even kept dogs and cats. Yagisawa was shocked by the dark, unimaginable reality of living in such a place.
A woman from a local barbershop, where the woman had often visited during childhood, described her as a cheerful, chubby child who always smiled. However, she had few friends and, by high school, was dating an older man who claimed to be a teacher, suggesting a maturity beyond her years. The woman’s lonely childhood seemed to create an emotional void that she tried to fill with relationships, which perhaps ultimately twisted into a form of love that led to crime. Her path to crime began in those early years.
The woman passed away in January 2023, choking on food in a detention facility in Hiroshima.
Yamaguchi Serial Murder and Arson Case – 2013
The Yamaguchi Serial Murder and Arson Case – 2013
Known as a modern “Yatsuhakamura” (a reference to the famous Japanese mystery novel), this case occurred in a remote settlement with eight households and 14 people in the mountainous region of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The perpetrator, a 63-year-old man, had returned to his hometown at 44 to care for his elderly parents. Initially, he actively engaged with the villagers, even planning and community revitalization efforts. However, after his parents passed away, he began causing trouble and was eventually ostracized from the village. One day, he killed five villagers in succession and set their homes on fire. The man was convicted of murder and arson and sentenced to death in August 2019.
Driving from the highway interchange toward the settlement, abandoned rice fields and the devastated remains of nearby villages became apparent. Further ahead, the village where the crimes occurred came into view, with the perpetrator’s house situated near the entrance. His house, covered in white walls, stood out starkly among the traditional Japanese homes of the village, almost symbolizing his isolation from the local people.
The Matsuyama Hostess Murder Case – 1982
In August 1982, a 31-year-old hostess was murdered in an apartment in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture. The murderer, Kazuko Fukuda (34 at the time of the crime), evaded capture for approximately 15 years by undergoing facial surgery and living in hiding. She was arrested in July 1997, just three weeks before the statute of limitations expired. Fukuda was sentenced to life imprisonment and passed away from a stroke in March 2005.
“The story goes that there’s a house about to collapse, but my parents told me not to go there, so I’ve never been.”
In 2009, journalist and photographer Takaki Yagisawa visited Imabari City, Ehime, to find the house where Fukuda had lived during her middle school years. When Yagisawa inquired locally about the “Harmonica Alley,” the area where Fukuda had lived, he was told by a local man.
However, when Yagisawa eventually found “Harmonica Alley,” it turned out there were no crumbling houses, only a row of carports with roofs. Fukuda’s mother had run a bar there and forced her to work as a hostess and engage in prostitution.
Fukuda’s life was one of constant migration, from place to place, even after her birth, eventually leading her to a life on the run. It is unclear whether she ever had a place to truly call home. However, despite this, Imabari seemed to hold a special significance for her. It was here that she had met her eldest son during her time in hiding, and the people of the area seemed to show her kindness.
A taxi driver spoke about Fukuda as though he could personally relate to her situation, and a woman at an okonomiyaki restaurant remarked, “It makes me sad, it’s heartbreaking,” expressing sympathy for Fukuda as a woman who had faced great struggles. Yagisawa noted that this was the first time he had encountered local people who empathized with a criminal’s past in such a manner.
From the homes where criminals once lived, the land they grew up on, and the environments in which they spent their lives, various circumstances that are often overlooked in crime reports come into view.
The Killing House” (written by Takaaki Yagisawa, published by Tetsujinsha)