In this article, we are going to see a list of famous serial killers from Japan. A comprehensive list of known serial killers of Japanese nationality. These are some of the most brutal killers in Japanese history.
Don't expect serial killers who claimed 50 victims on this list. Still, some Japanese assassins had a normal life until they suddenly started committing such crimes.
Fukiage Satarō - Rapist and murderer
Fukiage Satarou was a rapist and serial killer who lived between 1889 and 1926 and died at the age of 37. Some claim he raped about 100 women, and murdered 7 girls.
He was born in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto. His family forced him to work at the age of eight. He often changed jobs. At age 11, he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, for which he lost his job.
At age 12, he was arrested for theft. Fukiage learned kana and math during the two months he spent in prison. He was arrested again for theft shortly after his release, but learned Classical Chinese while in prison a second time.
Fukiage had sex with a 54-year-old woman at the age of 17. He later raped his 11-year-old daughter and a few other girls in the neighborhood. On September 24, 1906, he raped and killed an 11-year-old known girl in Kinkaku-ji.
In prison he studied the works of Confucius, Mencius, Socrates, Aristotle and Nichiren. He was released in 1922 and found employment, but was fired due to his criminal past. In April 1923, he was arrested for molesting a four-year-old girl, but was released.
Between June 1923 and April 1924, he raped and killed six girls, aged between 11 and 16. He was arrested on July 28, 1924. He confessed to 13 murders, but later recanted and insisted that he had murdered only six girls.
He wrote a book, Shaba [娑婆] or "The Street". He was sentenced to death on May 17, 1925. The Supreme Court of Japan upheld his death sentence on July 2, 1926. Do we have a scholarly rapist murderer here?
Yoshio Kodaira - Influenced by war
Yoshio Kodaira was a rapist and serial killer from Japan who was born in 1905 and died in 1949 through the death penalty. He claimed his first victim in 1932 and then killed 7 more between 1945 and 1946.
Kodaira suffered from stuttering during her childhood. He joined the Japanese Navy in 1923 and participated in the Jinan Incident. He killed six Chinese soldiers in 1928 and raped many women in China. In Taku Forts, he rammed a sword into the belly of a pregnant woman. The exact number of its victims in China is unknown.
Kodaira married in 1932 after he returned to Japan. His wife eventually left him because he had a child by another woman. He became angry and attacked his wife's home, killing his father-in-law and wounding six others with an iron bar on July 2, 1932. He was arrested and released in 1940.
He is believed to have raped and murdered 10 women between May 25, 1945 and August 6, 1946 in Tochigi and Tokyo. After the fifth murder, he committed necrophilia with the corpse. His murder victims included teenagers.
He also raped around 30 women in addition to his murder victims. The police sought out Kodaira after she was named after Ryukos' parents. On August 20, 1946, Kodaira was arrested.
He denied responsibility for three murders in court, and the district court tried him for seven of its ten murder suspects on June 18, 1947. One of the victims was never identified. The Supreme Court the sentenced to death on November 16, 1948.
Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko Ogata
Futoshi Matsunaga was born in 1961 known for the Kitakyushu serial murder incident, where he defrauded and tortured his victims. Futoshi Matsunaga was born in the city of Kitakyūshū in Fukuoka Prefecture and grew up in Yanagawa.
Matsunaga received good grades at school and had a charming personality, but tended to exhibit disciplinary problems. He transferred to another school after getting involved in a relationship with a high school girl. He married at 19 and had a son.
Despite being married, Matsunaga was involved with at least ten lovers. In October 1982, during his marriage, he became involved with Junko Ogata, one of his former schoolmates from Yanagawa.
In 1984, Matsunaga promised to marry Junko, but her mother, Shizumi Ogata, did not approve of the relationship because of her daughter's abuse. Matsunaga raped Shizumi as a result. In 1985, Matsunaga convinced Junko that her family hated her because of a suicide attempt and convinced her to move in with him.
That same year, Matsunaga also purchased a building in which he could operate a futon business. Afterwards, he began electrically shocking employees on the third floor.
Sometimes Matsunaga would suddenly yell at other men, saying things like, “There's a spirit behind you! It's sucking your fortune!” He also made references to religious terms like saṃsāra and kami.
In 1992, Matsunaga had stolen 180 million yen (about US $ 2.2 million) through fraud or blackmail. He and Junko escaped police capture and were placed on Japan's most wanted list.
The story goes much further, several families were murdered by the hand of Matsunaga and Junko using lies, fraud, manipulation and scams. Mothers and Children and possible unconfirmed victims.
Matsunaga was convicted of six counts of murder and one count of manslaughter between 1996 and 1998 and sentenced to death by hanging. He killed his victims with his accomplice, Junko Ogata who received life imprisonment.
Matsunaga's crimes were so cruel that the Japanese media was unwilling to report the details. Matsunaga and Ogata killed at least seven people between 1996 and 1998. Their victims included their parents and Ogata's two sons and nephews.
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Hiroaki Hidaka - Prostitution and Enjo Kosai
Hidaka was born in Miyazaki Prefecture. He was originally an excellent student, but failed to get into Tsukuba University, his target college. He entered Fukuoka University, but ended up dropping out. He often borrowed money, drank and became involved with prostitutes.
In April 1989, he moved to Hiroshima and started working as a taxi driver. Hidaka married in 1991 and had a daughter in 1993, but his wife entered a psychiatric hospital.
Hidaka killed and robbed four women between April and September 1996. One of his victims was a 16-year-old girl who was involved in Enjo kōsai. He was arrested on September 21, 1996.
The Hiroshima District Court sentenced Hidaka to death on February 9, 2000, a sentence he did not appeal. He was executed by hanging on December 25, 2006.
Other Japanese Killers Serials
There are many other serial killers from Japan who have gained a bit of fame. Realize that the Japanese media doesn't like to talk about the subject, so much so that usually a simple murderer with 4 victims gets on the list of serial killers.
We're not going to go on talking about the lives of each of them, we're just going to list their names and how many confirmed victims they've taken. Many were rapists and led seemingly normal lives. See the list below:
- Tsutomu Miyazaki - 4 victims;
- Norio Nagayama - 4 victims;
- Seisaku Nakamura - 9 to 11 victims;
- Akira Nishiguchi - 5 kills;
- Yoshio Kodaira - 8 to 11 victims;
- Hiroshi Maeue - 3 victims;
Also see an article about Nevada-Tan and also about crimes in japan.
