<figure id="attachment_468457" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468457" style="width: 605px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b0175b36"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/9eaa47a258071e6c95ce693e3fc579b4.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468457" class="wp-caption-text">The scene of the &#8220;Setagaya Family Murder Case&#8221; where trees were overgrown. Luong and the other suspects broke a windowpane by the front door to enter.</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Breaking and entering in search of money</span></h3>
<p> Mikio Miyazawa (then 44) and four other members of his family were murdered in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, late at night on December 30, 2000, in the Setagaya Family Murder Case. The men who broke into the house where the murders took place to steal money and goods were arrested.</p>
<p> On May 14, the Metropolitan Police Department announced the arrest of Luong Van Hai, 32, of no fixed address, and Nguyen Main Hung, 28, of Chofu City, Tokyo, both Vietnamese construction workers, on charges of breaking into the residence and attempted theft.</p>
<p> In March, when police officers questioned Luong in Nerima Ward, they discovered that his status of residence had expired, and he was arrested on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control Act (illegal residency). During the interrogation, the suspect hinted that he and Nguyen had entered the crime scene together. Nguyen was arrested in Chofu City in April on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control Act.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The two suspects were suspected of &#8220;breaking into the house where the murder took place in Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, between mid-September &#8217;23 and mid-December &#8217;25, with the intent to steal money and goods. The two suspects admitted that they broke into the vacant house because their income was unstable and they had no money, and that they broke into the house to make a little extra money to support themselves. It seems that they did not know that this was the scene of the &#8220;Setagaya Family Murder Case.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On the morning of December 13 last year, a police officer on patrol found a windowpane by the first floor entrance broken. There were two kinds of footprints in the room, and the front door, which was supposed to be locked, was open.</span><span class="strongInContent"> The front door, which was supposed to be locked, was open. The police were investigating on the grounds that someone had broken into the house.</span></p>
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<p> The crime scene in Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, is now located in Soshigaya Park. Immediately after the incident, the police stationed police officers around the clock to preserve evidence, but in February of 2008, they pulled back security because they had finished preserving the evidence. Originally, it was scheduled to be demolished in January of the same year. However, at the bereaved family&#8217;s request, an agreement was concluded with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which owns the land, to postpone the building&#8217;s demolition, and this has been the case up to the present.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" High School Student Breaks In, Thinking It&#39;s a Ghost Spot"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">There have been incidents going on.</span></h3>
<p> Since the building was no longer guarded, there have been several incidents.&#8217; In November &#8217;20, a fence surrounding the building was found to have graffiti on it, including drawings and signs resembling faces, and in May of the following year, a high school boy was sent to prosecution on charges of destruction of property. In October 2011, another group of nearly 10 high school students climbed over the fence and entered the premises, and were sent to prosecution on charges of violation of the Misdemeanor Law. The high school students <span class="strongInContent">said they were just testing their courage and thought it was a haunted place.</span> They <span class="strongInContent">said they did not know about the incident.</span></p>
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<p> The charge against Luong and the others is &#8220;trespassing at a residence,&#8221; a term that may be unfamiliar to you. Is it different from &#8220;trespassing&#8221; or &#8220;breaking and entering,&#8221; which we often see in news reports? Koichiro Matsui, an attorney at ATOM Law Office, explained.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The term &#8220;trespassing&#8221; is not a legal crime, but a general term for the crime of trespassing under the first sentence of Article 130 of the Penal Code. The term &#8216;trespassing&#8217; is sometimes used in the media for convenience.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The first sentence of Article 130 of the Penal Code provides, &#8220;A person who, without just cause, trespasses into a person&#8217;s dwelling, or into a residence, building, or vessel guarded by a person (omitted) shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than 100,000 yen. In the same article, the crime is divided into &#8220;breaking and entering&#8221;, &#8220;breaking and entering&#8221;, &#8220;breaking and entering&#8221;, and &#8220;breaking and entering&#8221;, depending on the nature of the building.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The term &#8220;residence&#8221; refers to a residential building that is not used on a daily basis, such as a vacant house. The Setagaya site in this case is a vacant house that no one has lived in for a long time, so it is a &#8220;mansion.</span></p>
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<p> Then, why wasn&#8217;t the break-in by a group of high school students in 2011, when they were &#8220;testing their mettle,&#8221; considered a &#8220;breaking and entering&#8221; of a residence?</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the &#8217;23 case, the investigation was initially underway on suspicion of &#8220;breaking and entering of buildings and violation of the Misdemeanor Law,&#8221; but in the end, the case was treated as breaking and entering of a restricted site (Article 1, Item 32 of the Misdemeanor Law). This was the result of taking various circumstances into consideration, such as the fact that the intrusion was not into the building itself but into the premises, and the fact that the victims were all minors and required protective custody.</span></p>
<p> Incidentally, breaking into abandoned buildings that are famous as haunted places <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;can be charged as trespassing if the building is under someone&#8217;s de facto control, such as fences and locks,&#8221; the</span> report said.</p>
<p> The gap in people&#8217;s perception of the building at the site, which continues to exist due to the wishes of the bereaved family, one cannot help but feel the length of time that has passed since the incident. We can only hope that the case will be resolved as soon as possible.</p>

<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Photo: &quot;Setagaya Family Murder&quot; crime scene"></div>
<figure id="attachment_468458" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468458" style="width: 344px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b8c5b61e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/de85ae768b9c1e7c9724332e20f9a6fc.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468458" class="wp-caption-text">The suspect, Luong, was sent to the Nerima police station on May 15.</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_468460" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468460" style="width: 605px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d148bfa8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/61a7a87c73be57a63decdd857d71cf5a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468460" class="wp-caption-text"> The house was surrounded by a fence and barricades were placed in front of the road.</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_468461" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468461" style="width: 605px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d54b39f9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/e15a01a049e6139245583e41e367d1e1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468461" class="wp-caption-text"> The house was completely swallowed up by greenery.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_468463" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468463" style="width: 2520px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="359850d8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/9eb95a2c82fc54b3737718d5e6463d69.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468463" class="wp-caption-text"> The investigation is still ongoing.</figcaption></figure>


 Shinji Hasuo

 On May 14, two Vietnamese nationals were arrested on suspicion of breaking into the vacant house where the Setagaya murders took place in order to steal. The incident has continued at the site since the police stopped providing security to preserve the scene in '20. ......

The Setagaya Family Murder: “I didn’t have any money, so I went into an abandoned house.

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