Kaito Takemae, a suspect in the Tochigi robbery-murder: “Beautiful Boyhood” and “Rambling Half Life” that Planned to Enter the Showbiz World
Tying up anyone they don’t like.
On the morning of May 14, a group of four boys broke into a house in Kamimikawa-cho, Tochigi Prefecture. They killed Eiko Tomiyama, 69, and her dog, and seriously injured her two sons who lived with them. The joint Kanagawa and Tochigi Prefectural Police Investigation Headquarters arrested Kaito Takemae, 28, and Mie Takemae, 25, on suspicion of robbery and murder.
The life of Kaito, who is believed to have been in charge of instructing the boys who carried out the robbery, was filled with violence.
Born and raised in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kaito lived in a municipal apartment complex in the city before moving to a house. This was about 10 years ago. A neighborhood resident described the situation at the time.
I remember that Kaito’s father was very happy because it was the first time for him to buy his own home. However, Kaito is his mother’s stepson, and I heard that he met his father when he was in his early elementary school years. It seems they had a complicated family.”
Due to his mother’s remarriage, Kaito became the second son of three siblings. There was a time when the family relationship seemed good to those around them, and his stepfather was always concerned about the suspect.
At the time, Kaito was good-looking. His parents encouraged him to audition for an entertainment agency, and this episode was well known in the neighborhood. However, when he reached puberty, he became a well-known delinquent in the community.
The father of a teammate of Kaito’s from his junior high school soccer team remembers him vividly.
“It was a strong soccer school with dozens of members, but Kaito just stood out, …… as a badass. He shaved his eyebrows thin, dyed his hair light brown, and when he found someone he didn’t like, he would try to tie them up. I also heard that he rode around on a motorcycle. It was always Kaito who caused problems at school.”
A male classmate of Kaito’s in the first grade witnessed graphic violence in the classroom.
I saw him hitting someone many times,” he said. Whenever there was someone he didn’t like, he would go into the classroom and beat them up mercilessly. The targets were quiet children. I would punch them in the stomach or kick them in the buttocks, but never in the face. Maybe it was because the soccer team’s advisor was a scary and well-known teacher, but he would hit him where his clothes would hide the wound.
He really liked soccer and only took club activities seriously. He was a forward, but he never made it to the regular team. On the other hand, he always skipped classes. He was the type of player who meekly obeyed stronger opponents, but took an overbearing attitude toward those weaker than himself.
After graduating from junior high school, Kaito entered a regular high school in Kanagawa Prefecture. However, his high school life fell apart in an instant. A classmate confides.

Flamboyant Japanese carvings on his neck and arms
Kaito quit high school just two or three months after entering the school, saying, “It’s no fun at all. After that, he seems to have gone down the path of mischievousness.
After dropping out of high school, Kaito did not get a regular job, and “his life since his late teens has been a charlatan,” a senior local resident said.
I have known him since he was 16 years old, and he is just a lazy character. I’ve known him since he was 16, and he’s just too lazy to settle down and work on one job at a time. He once worked as a craftsman in the plumbing industry, but it didn’t last long. He kept changing workplaces, became a NEET, and had no idea how he was making a living.”
He says, “There was a time when I saw him standing in front of everyone at a coming-of-age ceremony and giving a toast, and I thought for a moment that he had become a decent person.
In her early 20s, she got married for the first time. She had a baby boy, but in 2009 she was arrested for indecency with a minor. Her marriage fell apart, and she quit her job in the plumbing industry, where she had worked until then.
About a month before the current incident, Kaito visited a restaurant owned by an acquaintance near midnight with his infant son and his current wife, Miyui. A female employee who saw Kaito said, “Kaito was a thin, handsome man of the old days.
The thin, macho, good-looking man he used to be has disappeared, He looked like a fat middle-aged man with a beer belly. He had gaudy Japanese tattoos all over his neck and arms, and was wearing a Rolex-like luxury watch. He looked like a man who had a good handle on his money. When I asked him, “What kind of work are you doing these days? but she was vague and didn’t say much.
In fact, the female employee had heard this lament from Kaito’s uncle shortly before he arrived at the store.
She said, “I asked Kaito-kun’s uncle, ‘Kaito-kun, how are you doing? He looked very sad and said, ‘I don’t want to be involved with Kaito any more. He said, “Don’t get involved with Kaito-kun anymore. I couldn’t keep him on the straight and narrow.
Apparently, he started hanging out with a bunch of people who were not on the straight and narrow and left my uncle. …… Even my uncle, who really loved him and was trying hard to raise him to be a man, spoon-fed him.”
I wonder if he thought with his absent mind, “I can get a lot of money easily.” Rejecting the help offered to him, Kaito turned to black market robbery and lost everything.

PHOTO: Kyodo News Agency
