The Dark Truth Behind Suicide Recruiters on Social Media
Met up with a high school girl and went together to the Aokigahara forest
A young man with red-dyed hair—an ordinary-looking youth—calmly boarded the police transport vehicle, seemingly unaware or indifferent to the group of around ten reporters gathered there.
On June 23, Yuto Kakuma (21), an unemployed resident of Minokamo City, Gifu Prefecture, was sent to the Saitama District Public Prosecutors Office. He had been arrested by the Saitama Prefectural Police on June 21 on suspicion of abducting a minor. On June 8, he allegedly lured a high school girl through social media and took her on foot from a roadside near Kawaguchiko Station in Yamanashi Prefecture to a parking lot in the same town.
“On June 15, the body of a high school girl was discovered hanging near the Fugaku Wind Cave intersection in the Aokigahara Forest, more than 10 kilometers from Kawaguchiko Station, by a male tourist. The girl had left home on the morning of the 8th, saying she was going to school, but never returned. A note suggesting suicide was found in her room, and her family reported her missing to the Urawa Police Station,” said a reporter from the social affairs section.
Surveillance footage showed Kakuma and the girl meeting on the night of the 8th at Kawaguchiko Station and walking to a parking lot in Fujikawaguchiko Town. They were later seen heading toward the forest. Footage from around 8 a.m. the following morning, the 9th, showed Kakuma alone, walking out from the forest.
“Kakuma reportedly admitted, ‘We met on social media. It’s true that I invited her to die together and took her to the Aokigahara Forest.’
Police also searched Kakuma’s home, seizing clothing and his smartphone. Analysis of the phone revealed that he had searched terms such as looking for suicide partners, Aokigahara Forest, and ‘how to tie a rope. After the incident, he also searched for Aokigahara news, missing person news, and Saitama missing person. It’s possible he was checking whether the incident had been discovered,” the same source said.
Police suspect Kakuma may have assisted the girl’s suicide and are continuing their investigation.
Posts such as “Shall we die together?” seeking companions on social media, or replies like “I’ll help you” to messages implying suicidal intent, continue to appear even today. However, many who reach out are not doing so out of kindness, but to satisfy their own desires.
On June 27, the death sentence of Takahiro Shiraishi, the former convict in the shocking “Zama serial murder case,” was carried out. Shiraishi lured suicidal individuals he met through social media to his apartment, where he murdered them one after another. He stole their belongings and engaged in sexual acts. Let’s look back at some recent incidents where suicide-seekers were drawn into crimes through social media.
The Fukushima case involving six suicides (including attempts)
Still fresh in memory is the case of an unemployed 36-year-old man from Fukushima City who was arrested by the Fukushima Prefectural Police on January 31 of this year. He was suspected of providing the tools for suicide to a woman in her 20s who took her own life inside a passenger car parked on a forest road in Tamura City, Fukushima Prefecture, on January 9.
Subsequent investigations revealed that he was involved in three suicide assistance cases within the prefecture (one of which was an attempted suicide). Among the victims was a girl under the age of 18. All four victims had posted messages on social media expressing suicidal thoughts. The man was also indicted for violating the Prefectural Youth Protection Ordinance for engaging in sexual acts with the underage victim, as well as for theft after withdrawing 160,000 yen in cash from a victim’s bank account.
Furthermore, on June 23, he was rearrested and indicted for assisting in the suicide of a teenage girl in Yamagata Prefecture in September 2023, and for abducting a minor. He is also suspected of involvement in an attempted suicide assistance case involving a teenage girl in Tochigi Prefecture.
The Saitama Case: Approaching a Suicide Seeker with Obscene Intentions
In October 2022, a man (then 28), an employee of a construction-related company living in Saitama City, was arrested on suspicion of assisting the suicide of a junior high school girl in Yokohama. The man had been using social media to search for women expressing suicidal thoughts, contacting them with obscene intentions. He met the girl through social media and lured her to his home on September 20 of the same year. On the 23rd, he took her to a bridge in Sagamihara City, where he reportedly helped her climb over the railing by supporting her feet. Her body was found in a nearby river on the 29th.
In court, the man testified, “I thought if I contacted mentally unstable women, they might be interested in me and agree to meet.” He admitted to having met with five or six other women before. In August 2023, he was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
A case in Saitama involving a desire to fulfill one’s own murder urge
In addition, Saito Jun, a 31-year-old unemployed man from Saitama City, was arrested by the Saitama Prefectural Police on suspicion of murder and was sent to the prosecutor’s office on June 18. He is suspected of killing a 21-year-old woman living in Ibaraki Prefecture in 2018. The woman had suicidal thoughts, and the two had met through social media. Saito reportedly stated, “I’ve had the desire to kill since I was little,” and added, “If someone has suicidal thoughts, police investigations don’t reach very far. That worked in my favor.” This was the reason he approached the woman.
In the “Zama 9 murders,” former death row inmate Shiraishi also lied about having suicidal thoughts to get close to his victims on social media. He believed that women with suicidal tendencies would be more likely to do as they were told. Whether it be for money, sexual purposes, or to fulfill a desire to kill—some people who reach out online to those with suicidal thoughts under the guise of kindness are only driven by their own desires.
Japan Telephone of Life Federation
Phone: 0570-783-556 (10:00 AM – 10:00 PM)
Yorisoi Hotline (General Incorporated Association – Social Inclusion Support Center)
Phone: 0120-279-338 (24-hour support; from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures, dial ends with 226)
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare “Unified Mental Health Consultation Dial” and SNS consultations
Phone: 0570-064-556 (Support hours vary by municipality)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/hukushi_kaigo/seikatsuhogo/jisatsu/soudan_info.html
Lifesaving Consultation Contact List (List of consultation services by prefectures and designated cities)
https://jscp.or.jp/soudan/index.html
PHOTO： Shinji Hasuo
