<figure id="attachment_454711" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-454711" style="width: 879px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="26f0cfca"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/01/bf035733c84fbc1585aaca25a2fceb83.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-454711" class="wp-caption-text">Defendant Yaguchi at the time he was sent to prison in January &#8217;25.</figcaption></figure>
<p> One year has passed since the tragic incident on January 22.</p>
<p> On the same day in &#8217;25, a man used a beef knife to silently kill and injure three men and women waiting for a bus in front of JR Nagano Station, one after another. A 49-year-old man died at the time. The man charged with the murders was Yusuke Yaguchi, 47, an unemployed man from Nagano City.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Immediately after his arrest, Yaguchi kept silent, but recently he changed his mind. He has stated that he would &#8216;plead not guilty&#8217; and &#8216;I will tell everything at the trial. The Nagano District Court began pretrial proceedings on January 20 to narrow down the evidence and issues for the jury trial.</span></p>
<p> FRIDAY Digital&#8221; went to the site of the incident immediately after it occurred and covered it. We would like to look back on the horrific crime and the lifestyle of Yaguchi, who was said to have been burdened with a large amount of debt.</p>
<h2> Escaping with a beef knife</h2>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Crikey!</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Help!</span></p>
<p> It was around 8 p.m. on January 22, 2013, when the bus stop at the Zenkoji Exit of JR Nagano Station was filled with the screams of people. A man with a beef knife, said to have been purchased at a home improvement store before the incident, killed and wounded three men and women waiting for the bus one after another.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The perpetrator fled the scene with the beef knife. The defendant Yaguchi, believed to be the perpetrator, was taken into custody by the Nagano Prefectural Police on suspicion of attempted murder on the morning of January 26, four days after the incident. The police were able to trace Yaguchi&#8217;s steps as he fled from Nagano Station to his apartment through a &#8220;relay investigation&#8221; that connected multiple security camera images.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> They may have feared that they would be identified from the publicly available camera footage. Perhaps Yaguchi intended to disguise himself, as he had shaved off his goatee and shortened his long hair, which was there immediately after the incident.</span></p>
<p> (A reporter from a national newspaper&#8217;s social division). The three people who were stabbed had never met Yaguchi. Why did Yaguchi commit this indiscriminate crime?</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The garbage overflowed, electricity and gas were cut off, and ......"></div>
<h2>He shouted unintelligible words and &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Yaguchi left local elementary and junior high schools, and after graduating from high school, he went on to a science university in the Tokyo metropolitan area. As a child, he was a member of the basketball team and had a cheerful personality. However, he moved from job to job in the Kanto area, and his life took a dark turn when he returned to his hometown more than a decade ago.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> She is said to have been struggling with a large amount of debt. The mailbox in the apartment where Yaguchi lived alone was littered with letters demanding payment of debts. His room was filled with garbage, and his electricity and gas had been cut off. He sometimes shouted unintelligible words and got into trouble with his neighbors. Frustration with life not going the way he wanted may have been the trigger for his crime.</span></p>
<p> Yaguchi was on welfare. Immediately after his arrest, he had only 66 yen in his pocket. Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa explains.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He must have been desperate because he had reached a point in his life. But that is no reason to take a person&#8217;s life. The fact that he is pleading not guilty does not make sense either. The judge&#8217;s opinion will have a great impact on the verdict at the trial.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The crime scene is in front of Nagano station, so there will be many witnesses. There must be a good amount of evidence. It is too much to plead not guilty, and the judges may think that he has no remorse even though he killed and injured three people.</span></p>
<p> A year has passed since the incident, and there is still no end to the number of people offering flowers and laying hands on the victims in front of Nagano Station, the scene of the crime.</p>
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 Shinji Hasuo

 One year has passed since three men and a woman were killed and wounded in front of JR Nagano station. The defendant has pleaded not guilty. We take a look back at the life of the defendant, whose mailbox was filled with demand letters due to his horrific crime and massive debts.

One year after the triple murder in Nagano, the 47-year-old defendant, who used a beef knife to kill three people one after another without saying a word, was &#8220;heavily in debt and filled with demand letters.

One year after the triple murder in Nagano, the 47-year-old defendant, who used a beef knife to kill three people one after another without saying a word, was “heavily in debt and filled with demand letters.

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