<figure id="attachment_416741" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-416741" style="width: 2532px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4e29fa73"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/5bcdde7122bdedef61919d616f21caa8.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-416741" class="wp-caption-text">X (center) three months before the incident. He is smiling a good-natured smile (from the March 18, &#8217;05 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 introduce <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;The Face of the Violent Act of a 57-Year-Old City Office Manager Who Slaughtered His Mother, Children, and Grandchildren,</span> &#8221; which appeared in the March 18, 2005 issue 20 years ago.</p>
<p> On February 27, 2005, a family of six was murdered in Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture. A man X (57 at the time), who had a reputation as a &#8220;kind uncle&#8221; in the neighborhood, killed his mother, children, and grandchildren one after another. Everyone in the neighborhood tilted their heads as to why he had to murder his family. The article reported the scene at the beginning of the incident. All ages are current at the time).</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> He even took his 20-day-old grandson in his hands.</span></h3>
<p> The murderous act began in the morning.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On the morning of February 27, 2005, X, who worked at a geriatric healthcare facility in Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture, strangled his eldest son, 33, and his 85-year-old mother, Ako, who was sleeping, with a piece of string. At around 11:00 a.m., he next visited the home of his eldest daughter, Biko (30), who lived about 1 km away from his house. He then took her and her two grandchildren, a 2-year-old and a 20-day-old, to his home and strangled them to death, saying, &#8220;Grandma misses you.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> At around 1:00 p.m., she lured Biko&#8217;s husband, 30, to her home and suddenly stabbed him with a kitchen knife, saying, &#8220;I want you to die! and stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Despite being stabbed in the abdomen, her husband fled and called the police for help. When officers from the Nakatsugawa Police Station of the Gifu Prefectural Police rushed to the scene, X was in the bathroom with a 20 cm-long sashimi knife held to his own throat, dying. In the adjoining Buddhist-style room were the bodies of Ms. A, Mr. B, and their two children, with Mr. B in a posture as if he were protecting his children.</span></p>
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<p> Also, in the mountains near X&#8217;s place of work, the mutilated corpses of two shepherds that he had loved were found.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Four &quot;motives&quot; emerged."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Did &#8220;something&#8221; happen during the three-month period?</span></h3>
<p> X was a devilish criminal, but everyone in the neighborhood said that he was a &#8220;kind uncle. He had a reputation for being gentle and caring, and was never seen in anger. At the time, the following motives emerged.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> (1) Fatigue from caring for his mother, Ako, due to her progressive dementia</span><br>
<span class="strongInContent"> (2) X&#8217;s own illness</span><br>
<span class="strongInContent"> (iii) Work-related troubles of the eldest son</span><br>
<span class="strongInContent"> (4) Resentment toward his wife (55), who was on a trip on the day of the murder and was the only one who escaped the disaster.</span></p>
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<p> However, when this magazine interviewed them, it found that none of the above was decisive. According to the testimony of nearby residents, in (1), Ms. A&#8217;s dementia did not appear to be that severe, and in (2), when we interviewed X&#8217;s employer, he said, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;At that time, there was no fact that she had been suffering from a nervous headache for 10 years, as reported by some media</span>. As for (3), a friend of the eldest son testified that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;the trouble itself does not exist.</span> In the end, it can be said that these &#8220;motives,&#8221; including (4), were nothing more than rumors, and were too unrealistic as a motive for the murder of the entire family.</p>
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<p> A man who said he met X in early December 2004 described his condition at that time as follows.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He was a well-known trainer of police dogs in his hometown. The photo (top image *editor&#8217;s note) was taken at a party held at a police dog training convention. At the time, Mr. X was happily saying, &#8216;There is a competition in March that I am going to organize.</span></p>
<p> Did &#8220;something&#8221; happen to X in the three months between the party and the incident?</p>
<p> X, who attempted suicide, was in critical condition, but after a three-hour operation, he survived and regained consciousness on March 1. On March 1, he regained consciousness. What was his motive for committing the crime?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Why did X have to kill his entire family?"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">The motive was a long-standing grudge against a &#8220;toxic mother.</span></h3>
<p> The motive for the crime, which became clear during X&#8217;s trial that began in July 2005, was &#8220;a feud between X and his mother, Ms. A.&#8221; Originally, X had disliked Ms. A, who had been strict with him since elementary school. After X&#8217;s marriage, they lived separately, but around 1999, X&#8217;s younger brother, who was living with Ako at the time, asked him to take her in and live with him.</p>
<p> Although they began living together in this way, Ms. Ako began to &#8220;bully&#8221; X&#8217;s wife, and it seems that her bullying was quite severe. She also defecated in the bathtub after taking a bath so that she could not take a bath, and put raw garbage in the bathtub.</p>
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<p> X had been growing angrier and angrier with Ako, but one month before the incident, a decisive event occurred. On January 27, 2005, it was necessary to change the deposit of the postal savings account in Ms. Ako&#8217;s name, and the postmaster explained this to her. At that time, Ms. Ako had a hard time with the postmaster and cursed him. X&#8217;s hatred toward Ms. Ako was on the verge of exploding because of the trouble she caused not only to her family but also to her neighbors.</p>
<p> At first, X intended to kill only Ms. Ako and die himself. However, he felt pity for his remaining eldest son and daughter&#8217;s family to live as &#8220;the murderer&#8217;s family,&#8221; and decided to take them with him. However, he did not intend to kill only his wife, as he wanted her to see that they had been together for many years and that he had &#8220;cleaned up the mess&#8221;. Therefore, the crime was committed on the morning of the day of the incident, after he had dropped his wife off at the train station for a day trip.</p>
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<p> At the trial, the prosecutors sought the death penalty for X. However, the sentence handed down in January 2009 was life imprisonment <span class="strongInContent">because &#8220;he was in an extreme mental condition due to years of harassment by his mother, and there was no possibility that he would commit the crime again</span>. This sentence was extremely unusual for a case in which more than five people had been killed since 1990 and the death penalty was sought, and the case divided opinion. The dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court, but in December 2012, X was sentenced to life imprisonment.</p>
<p> Since the birth of his eldest daughter, Biko, in early February, just prior to the incident, X had been having dinner at Biko&#8217;s home with her grandchildren every day. The day before the incident, Mr. and Mrs. X and Biko&#8217;s family of six were sitting around the dinner table. What was X thinking during the family reunion?</p>
<p> The victims, who had their futures cut off without their say-so because of &#8220;pity,&#8221; will never know the extent of their regret&#8230;</p>

<figure id="attachment_416740" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-416740" style="width: 1146px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="70e5adfb"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/6e77813ec1445ba37e9f41f93d8d8889.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-416740" class="wp-caption-text"> X (right) receives an award. He was an excellent police dog trainer (from the March 18, 2005 issue).</figcaption></figure>

<figure id="attachment_416742" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-416742" style="width: 1326px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a3f89fcd"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/5aa21e18ce6e3301b3d9016ad669f91b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-416742" class="wp-caption-text"> X&#8217;s eldest daughter, Biko, and her two-year-old son (from the March 18, 2005 issue).</figcaption></figure>



 In this issue of Playback, we look back at what this magazine was reporting 20 years ago. The Nakatsugawa family of six was murdered in February 2005. What was the "motive" of the "kind uncle" who had a reputation in the neighborhood to kill his own family members?

Playback ’05] The Nakatsugawa Family Murder Case: The Motive of the “Gentle Uncle” who Murdered a Family

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