“I Want You to Kill Someone” to a “Jack-of-All-Trades”…! The “Job Details” Requested by the IT CEO Who Was Finally Arrested on Murder Charges

Finally Arrested on Murder Charges

At 9:00 a.m. on June 19, a police transport vehicle emerged from the Azabu Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.A man’s face was visible through the wire mesh partition between the driver’s seat and the back seat. Exactly two months earlier, when he was referred to prosecutors on charges of abandoning a corpse, he had tried to hide behind the passenger seat, but on this day, he was facing forward with his eyes quietly closed—.

On June 17, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department re-arrested Katsuya Mizuguchi (49), CEO of the IT company “Linux Japan,” on suspicion of murdering the company’s executive, Takeshi Kamiyama (54 at the time). Mizuguchi had been arrested in April on suspicion of abandoning Kamiyama’s body and was indicted on May 8.

“Last October, a female acquaintance contacted the police to report that she ‘could not get in touch with Mr. Kamiyama.’The police searched the company’s office but found nothing out of the ordinary and determined there was no criminal activity involved. However, in February of this year, the woman contacted the police again, saying she ‘couldn’t get in touch with him,’ and upon reopening the investigation, bloodstains belonging to Mr. Kamiyama were discovered inside the office.

Furthermore, it was revealed that around the time Mr. Kamiyama is believed to have gone missing, the defendant, Mizuguchi, had engaged in suspicious behavior, such as purchasing blue tarps on multiple occasions and renting a car, leading to his arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse.“However, at that point, Ms. Kamiyama’s body had not yet been found, making it a ‘body-less abandonment case,’” said a reporter from the crime desk of a national newspaper.

On May 29, parts of the body were discovered in a wooded area along a road in Izu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. The torso was found inside a black Boston bag caught on a tree, and DNA testing confirmed that the remains were those of Ms. Kamiyama.

“Why not dismantle it with a chainsaw?”

“On the same day that defendant Mizuguchi was re-arrested, Hayato Suzuki (29), an unemployed man from Sapporo, Hokkaido, was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting the mutilation and abandonment of a corpse. The two met on social media last June and began communicating via a highly secure messaging app.It is alleged that Defendant Mizuguchi approached Suspect Suzuki—who called himself a “jack-of-all-trades”—and asked him, ‘I want you to kill someone.’

Although Suspect Suzuki responded positively, he had no intention of committing murder and apparently kept finding various excuses to get Mizuguchi to send him money. It is said that Suspect Suzuki had previously taken money from clients without doing the work they requested, and he reportedly stated, ‘I thought he was just another sucker this time, too.’

Losing patience, Defendant Mizuguchi killed Mr. Kamiyama with his own hands. He reportedly sent Suspect Suzuki a “photo of evidence”—showing what appeared to be a body covered with a plastic sheet—along with the message, “I killed him myself.”

However, far from apologizing, Suspect Suzuki claimed, “This isn’t what we agreed on,” and demanded a penalty fee and other payments. It appears he had Mizuguchi transfer more than 5.3 million yen, including amounts owed from previous transactions. Even afterward, when Suspect Mizuguchi consulted him, saying, “The body is too heavy to move,” he offered advice such as, “Why not dismember it with a chainsaw?” and “Why not transport it in a rental car?” (ibid.)

It appears that these exchanges with Suspect Suzuki were the key factor leading to his re-arrest.

“It appears that the defendant Mizuguchi sent messages to Suspect Suzuki stating, ‘If I don’t kill him by September 28 [of ’25], the company will be taken over,’ and ‘My bank PIN will be changed.’“The police are proceeding with their investigation on the assumption that the murder occurred after a conflict between defendant Mizuguchi and Mr. Kamiyama over the management of the company,” (ibid.)

Two months after his arrest for “abandoning a corpse without a body,” Defendant Mizuguchi has finally been arrested on murder charges. Crime journalist Taihei Ogawa discusses the future of the investigation.

“Only part of the body has been found. The top priority is investigating the location where the body was abandoned. Next is the investigation into suspect Suzuki. How did they meet? Since he accepted a request to commit murder but only took the money, it’s essentially fraud. Additional charges are likely to emerge from suspect Suzuki, and it’s also unclear whether he acted on his own initiative.

Then there’s Mizuguchi’s motive for the murder. Since he went so far as to hire someone to do it, I believe there must have been a compelling reason. Reports have suggested there were disputes over executive compensation and the company’s management policies, but if that were the case, there were surely other ways to handle the situation.

“Given that he went so far as to dismember the body to ensure it wouldn’t be found, it seems he had a very strong intent to kill. We need to investigate what the actual motive was and whether the reasons reported so far are sufficient to justify going to such lengths.”

Defendant Mizuguchi is reportedly remaining silent regarding the murder charges. However, it likely won’t be long before the full details of the crime are revealed.

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