How a Recent Break-In Incident Highlighted the Ongoing Unsolved Setagaya Family Murder Case

Intrusion in search of valuables

In the Setagaya family murder case, in which four members of the Miyazawa family, including Mikio Miyazawa (then 44), were killed in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, late at night on December 30, 2000, men who broke into the house—the crime scene—to steal valuables were arrested.

On May 14, the Metropolitan Police Department announced the arrest of Luon Van Hai (32), with no fixed address, and Nguyen Manh Hung (28) from Chofu City, Tokyo, on suspicion of trespassing and attempted theft. Both are Vietnamese construction workers.

In March, a police officer in Nerima Ward questioned Luon, which revealed that his residence status had expired, and he was arrested on the spot for violating the Immigration Control Act (illegal overstay). During interrogation, he reportedly suggested that he had entered the scene together with Nguyen. Nguyen was later arrested in April in Chofu City on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control Act.

“The charges allege that between mid-September 2023 and mid-December 2025, the two entered the house in Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya Ward, which was the scene of the murder case, with the intent of theft and attempted to steal valuables. The two have admitted to the charges, saying things like our income was unstable and we had no money, so we entered an empty house and we entered to help cover living expenses, and have stated that they entered around September last year. They do not appear to have known it was the site of the Setagaya family murder case.

On the morning of December 13 last year, a patrol police officer discovered that the window glass next to the front door on the first floor had been broken. Inside, there were two types of footprints made with shoes, and the front door, which had been locked, was found open. Police had been investigating on the assumption that someone had broken in,” said a reporter from a national newspaper’s social affairs desk.

The site of the incident in Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya Ward, is now located within Sotobori Soshigaya Park in Tokyo. Immediately after the incident, police maintained a 24-hour presence to preserve evidence, but in February 2020 they ended the preservation and withdrew security. The building had originally been scheduled for demolition in January of that year. However, at the request of the bereaved family, a contract was made with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which owns the land, to postpone the demolition of the building, and it remains in place to this day.

Events continued

After security was discontinued, several incidents have occurred at the site. In November 2020, graffiti depicting faces and signatures was found on the fence surrounding the building, and in May of the following year, a male high school student was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of property damage. In October 2023, about ten other high school students climbed over the fence and entered the premises; they were referred to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Minor Offenses Act. The students reportedly said things like, “It was just a dare,” and “We thought it was a haunted spot. We didn’t know about the case.”

The charge brought against Luon and others is “trespass into a residence” a term that may not be familiar. How does it differ from the more commonly seen illegal entry or housebreaking in news reports? Attorney Koichiro Matsui of Atom Law Office provided an explanation.

“‘Illegal entry’ is not a legal charge; it is a general term used to refer to offenses under the first part of Article 130 of the Penal Code. In media reporting, the term is used for convenience.

The first part of Article 130 of the Penal Code states: ‘A person who, without justifiable reason, enters a residence, a building guarded by another person, a building, or a vessel, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than 100,000 yen.’ Depending on the nature of the place entered, it is categorized as trespass into a residence, trespass into a building, or trespass into a vessel, among others.

A ‘residence’ refers to a dwelling that is not in daily use; specifically, an unoccupied house. Since the Setagaya site has remained an empty house with no one living in it, it falls under the category of ‘residence’ in this legal sense.”

So why were the high school students who entered in 2023 for a haunted house dare not charged with trespass into a residence?

“In the 2023 case, the investigation initially proceeded on suspicion of building trespass and violation of the Minor Offenses Act, but it was ultimately handled as unauthorized entry into a prohibited area (Article 1, Item 32 of the Minor Offenses Act). This was likely due to various factors, such as the fact that the students only entered the grounds and not the building itself, and consideration of their status as minors requiring protection,” the lawyer said.

Incidentally, regarding entry into abandoned buildings known as haunted spots, it is said that if fences or locks indicate that someone is effectively managing and controlling the property, it may constitute building trespass.

From an empty house that might contain valuables to a famous haunted spot, the way people perceive the still-existing building—kept standing at the strong request of the victims’ families—highlights the gap in perception that has developed over the years since the incident. One can only hope for the swift resolution of the case.