<figure id="attachment_449056" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-449056" style="width: 2485px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7610c7ec"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/12/fc2a02fa2991bc5f4c77977c318ef63e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-449056" class="wp-caption-text">X was taken to the Hiroshima Prefectural Police Kaida Station, wearing a jumper and never showing his face (from the December 16, &#8217;05 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<p> What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In &#8220;Playback Friday,&#8221; we revisit topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will introduce the <span class="strongInContent">article &#8220;[Hiroshima Elementary School Girl Murder] X&#8217;s &#8216;proclivity&#8217; to hunt for &#8216;prey&#8217; while eating chocolate&#8221;</span> from the December 16, 2005 issue, which was published 20 years ago.</p>
<p> On November 22, 2005, at around 3:00 p.m., a neighbor found a suspicious-looking cardboard box in a vacant lot in front of a house in Aki Ward, Hiroshima City. When they opened it, they found the body of a young girl with her arms and legs bent over inside&#8230; Nine days later, on November 30, a &#8220;third-generation Peruvian&#8221; suspect, X (30 at the time), was arrested in Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture as a suspect in the case. The &#8220;true face&#8221; of X, as described by acquaintances (descriptions in parentheses are quotations from past articles, ages are current at the time).</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Eating chocolates while groping children leaving school</span></h3>
<p> The murdered child was A, 7, a first grader at a nearby elementary school. He had just moved from Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, in August when his father, a Japan Self-Defense Forces officer, was transferred to another city. The cause of death was asphyxiation due to neck compression. A chocolate wrapper was left on the cardboard for the gas stove that contained the body. The police identified a customer who had purchased a gas stove at a home improvement center in Higashihiroshima City, and X surfaced from there.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Three weeks before the incident, X moved into the second floor of an apartment facing A&#8217;s school route. His cousin&#8217;s family lives downstairs. On the day of the incident, a neighbor saw X sitting on the stone steps in front of the apartment, eating chocolate and staring at the children leaving school. There was also an eyewitness report that just before the crime, at around 1:00 p.m., X was talking with a girl who appeared to be A in front of the apartment building.</span></p>
<p> X came to Japan in April 2004 and worked for a staffing agency in Hiroshima Prefecture until mid-October 2005. The image of X&#8217;s character that people around him gave was not very favorable.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> They said, &#8220;X is a liar and dirty with money. He once demanded money for an injury he sustained at home, claiming it was a work-related accident. He was fired for frequently taking time off work, but he claimed it was an unfair dismissal. In the end, the company decided to pay the settlement, and on November 20, I received a phone call asking me to transfer the settlement money to my cousin&#8217;s account.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> A Brazilian woman (40), whose husband was a colleague of X&#8217;s, said, &#8220;X was an abnormal womanizer.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> X has an unusual fondness for women. He doesn&#8217;t even say hello to men, let alone talk to them. That&#8217;s why everyone hated him and he had no friends. But when he was with a woman, his attitude changed completely. He became very kind and aggressive. He was dirty with money, but he even bought her a can of juice during recess. When my husband heard the news of his arrest, he said, &#8216;He would have done it.</span></p>
<p> On November 25, at the funeral, A&#8217;s father gave a choked-up farewell speech, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;ll never forget how A sang a song he had written himself while playing the piano.</p>
<p> The murderer was caught, but A&#8217;s singing voice was never heard again.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" X spoke of his &quot;shocking motive&quot; at the trial."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">I didn&#8217;t mean to kill him. The devil got in.&#8221;</span></h3>
<p> The decisive factor in X&#8217;s arrest was that the DNA on the cardboard and the body matched that of X. However, just before his arrest, X suddenly disappeared from the apartment he was living in, located about 100 meters from where the body was found. After an exhaustive search, the police learned that he was in Mie Prefecture, and arrested him while he was sleeping at a friend&#8217;s house in Suzuka City.</p>
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<p> X, who had denied committing the crime at the time of his arrest, confessed to the charges the next day and said, &#8220;I want to apologize to the girl,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent">I want to apologize to the girl. I am sorry. I want to apologize to her parents. I did not intend to kill her. The devil came in.</span></p>
<p> He said that he had entered the country with a forged passport and that he had lied about his name and age. It was also discovered that she had entered the country with a forged passport and lied about her name and age. X was reported to be 30 years old at the time of the incident, but he was actually 33. He was also charged with three counts of attempted assault and indecent assault on a young girl while on the run in Peru, so he was unable to obtain a passport under his real name.</p>
<p> In the trial that began in May &#8217;06, the prosecution sought the death penalty. On the other hand, X&#8217;s defense lawyer denied his intention to kill, claiming that X was in a state of mind controlled by a voice from the devil telling him to &#8220;kill this child. He claimed that X was insane and had no capacity for criminal responsibility, a claim that drew considerable criticism.</p>
<p> In July, the Hiroshima District Court sentenced X to life imprisonment. The court ruled that the &#8220;voice from the devil&#8221; was an excuse to escape from the crime, and that he did have the capacity for responsibility. Both the prosecution and defense appealed against the decision. It is known that X was in prison as of 2013.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_449057" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-449057" style="width: 2081px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c0d11227"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/12/153da9b12e85688cfdacfeb406f50888.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-449057" class="wp-caption-text"> X&#8217;s apartment, located about 100 meters from where the body was found, where X showed A-chan the screen of his cell phone to attract her attention, took her into his room, and killed her by toying with her (from the December 16, &#8217;05 issue).</figcaption></figure>


 Yutaka Asai (1st photo), Mihiro Kikuchi (2nd photo)

 In this issue of Playback, we look back at what this magazine reported 10, 20, and 30 years ago. In this issue, we take a look back at the "Hiroshima Elementary School Murder Case" that took place in 2005. The perpetrator, a Peruvian man, told the court his shocking "motive.

Playback &#8217;05] &#8220;The Devil Told Me to Kill&#8221;: Peruvian Murderer of Hiroshima Elementary School Girl Tells of His Astonishing &#8220;Motive

Playback ’05] “The Devil Told Me to Kill”: Peruvian Murderer of Hiroshima Elementary School Girl Tells of His Astonishing “Motive

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