Kobe Apartment Murder of 24-Year-Old Woman — Traces of Life Found in Suspect Tanimoto’s 4.5-Tatami Room

By the bedside on the bed were two memorial tablets

On the night of August 20 in a condominium in Chuo Ward, Kobe City, resident Megumi Katayama (24), who worked at a major insurance company, was stabbed multiple times in the chest and killed. On August 22, Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested Tanimoto Masashi (35), an employee of a transportation company, on suspicion of murder. In the early morning of the 27th, authorities conducted a search of the dormitory in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, where Tanimoto had lived for about two years.

About two hours into the search, investigators removed two cardboard boxes of seized items, and Tanimoto was allowed to have the room photographed on the condition that no one entered it.

The private room was about 4.5 tatami mats in size, with shared toilet and bath facilities. The furniture consisted only of a refrigerator and a microwave, and laundry was still hanging along the walls. Multiple condiments and cooking utensils suggested that he had been preparing his own meals. At the bedside, occupying about half the floor space, were two memorial tablets believed to belong to relatives.

Tanimoto reportedly took leave starting August 17 and visited Kobe. Footage from nearby security cameras gradually revealed his movements leading up to the crime.

“On the night of the 20th, during the roughly 50 minutes while the victim returned home from work, Tanimoto followed her and got into the elevator with her before committing the attack. Immediately after his arrest, he stated that he did not know the victim, but he later confessed that on the morning of August 18, he spotted the victim walking on the street, thought she was a woman he liked, and followed her, confirming she entered her workplace building.”

Multiple security cameras near the victim’s workplace captured Tanimoto gazing up at the building, following her, and showing obsessive behavior. He was also seen tailing another woman the day before, on the 17th. It appears he roamed Kobe City from a hotel base in Chuo Ward, searching for women he fancied.

It is also known that Tanimoto had committed similar offenses in the past. A social affairs reporter explained:

“According to court documents, in September 2020, Tanimoto was ordered to pay a fine by Kobe Summary Court for violations of the Anti-Stalking Law, having followed a woman separate from Katayama, including entering an elevator with her multiple times.

Two years later, in May 2022, he developed one-sided feelings for another woman in her twenties whom he saw on the street. Over five months, he engaged in stalking behavior, including breaking into her apartment and ultimately strangling her, leading to an arrest on suspicion of attempted murder. The prosecution later charged him with injury-related offenses rather than attempted murder. In September of the same year, Kobe District Court sentenced him to two years and six months in prison, suspended for five years.”

The possibility of reoffending was strongly feared

What kind of person was Tanimoto? A reporter from a national newspaper’s Osaka branch, who has been covering the case since the arrest, sighed, saying, “It’s really hard to grasp his true nature.”

“After graduating from a junior high school in Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Tanimoto went on to a school for computer studies and later worked at a restaurant chain and a construction company. He apparently had a good reputation at work and was highly trusted.

According to a female relative, his parents divorced when he was very young, and although he was taken in by his father, that father has since passed away. Tanimoto reportedly visited his father’s grave frequently. However, very few people remember him from his junior high school days. He was the type to keep a low profile and rarely attended school. Even where he lived back then is unknown.”

After receiving a suspended sentence in 2022, Tanimoto moved to Tokyo. He worked for a construction company in Chiba Prefecture before joining the transportation company where he was employed at the time of his arrest. The dormitory searched by authorities was attached to the company, housing five men including Tanimoto.

At first glance, it appeared to be the room of an ordinary man living alone, with no obvious signs of abnormality. He was considered a competent worker and even caught the attention of the company president. When he mentioned borrowing 3 million yen to care for his parents, the president helped connect him with a lawyer for bankruptcy proceedings.

When the suspended sentence was handed down, Judge Jiro Anzai of Kobe District Court noted to Tanimoto, “Your distorted thinking is remarkable, and I must say there is a strong concern for reoffending.” How Tanimoto perceived these words remains unknown.

Having moved to Tokyo to start his life over, what was he thinking in this room? Why couldn’t he suppress the desire to find a woman he liked, follow her, and attack her? Why did he deliberately take time off to go to Kobe? The truth behind these questions awaits clarification.