What We Really Know About the Setagaya Family Murder?
One of the most infamous cold cases in Japan has turned 20
On December 30, 2020, one of the most infamous criminal cases in Japan’s history has turned twenty. A senseless murder of a family of four in Tokyo’s neighborhood of Setagaya has caught both the Japanese and international public’s attention, with countless amount of articles and podcast episodes dedicated to this tragedy. However, the passage of time and (in the case of international publications) the language barrier has muddled many details and blown some up.
I decided to put my language skills to use and write down a synopsis of the case as accurately and comprehensively as I could, basing it only on reputable Japanese sources. This means those familiar with this unsolved mystery may find some frequently shared information missing. It could be because I simply missed them; they are false or Japanese police don’t perceive them as important.
With all that said: here’s the story of the Miyazawa family.
Where it all started
When the Miyazaki family moved to Kamisoshigaya street in 1991, the place was bustling with houses, with over two hundred residential buildings scattered in the vicinity. The four of them: the father, office worker Miyazawa Mikio (44), his wife Yasuko (41) home tutor, daughter Niina (8) and son Rei (6) lived in a small cramped space. At the back, the house was neighboring a part of a park where little kids played, called “Choo-choo Train Park” (汽車ポッポ公園).
Soon Miyazawa’s started to lose more and more of their neighbors, who sold their land to the city. Tokyo already had plans for this area; to expand nearby Soshigaya Park. By the time the year 2000 rolled by, there were only four houses left.
One of them belonged to Yasuko’s older sister, An, but for most of the time, it was occupied by the sisters’ mother. An and her son spend eight years living in England and only got back to Setagaya in the Spring of 2000. Her husband was an engineer at a big automobile company (with some rumors claiming he worked with a Formula One team) and he was often overseas. This nearly empty home was the place where Yasuko could tutor children.
She didn’t have a lot of distance to cover. The two buildings were so close, they could be mistaken for a semi-detached house. This close proximity had Mikio feeling uneasy. He worried it could lead to family troubles in the future. He proposed soundproofing both places. An agreed.
Both families, just like their neighbors, planned to eventually move away from Kamisoshigaya and had already sold off their land to the city. But Yasuko was hesitating. She worried about her children acclimating to a new place, especially since her youngest, Rei, had a development disorder.
In the end, they never got to move. On the night of 30th December, the Miyazawa family's quiet life was cut short.
Night of the murder
The more time passes, the less is certain about the murderer’s actions. According to the most widely accepted version, he enters Miyazawa’s house through a small window on the second-floor bathroom. The perpetrator's first target is Rei’s bedroom, located right next to the bathroom. He finds the youngest one sleeping and strangles him. Rei is the only victim killed by strangling and the only one who doesn’t have any stab wounds or any bloodstains on his body. It’s in this bedroom where police find the most footprints.
The next victim is thought to be the father, Mikio. Police assume that before the assault he was on the first floor working. His body was found on the first floor, right next to the stairs. He has many wounds, mainly in the thighs and buttocks area, but stab wounds were also found on his both arms, chest, and face. His cause of death was ruled to be a blood loss resulting from chest stab wounds. Police find a fragment of sashimi knife, the murder weapon in his skull.
The last victims are mother and daughter who were sleeping together in the attic, accessible by a foldable ladder located on the second floor (close to the bathroom). They are stabbed multiple times, mainly in the face and neck area. First with a broken sashimi knife and then an all-purpose kitchen knife he must’ve gotten from Miyazawa’s house. It might be during the time perpetrator took to grab a knife, Yasuko decided to run with Niina. Bleeding heavily she took Niina in her arms and carried her down the stairs. The criminal must have noticed them and delivered the final blow. Both bodies were found crouched, with their backs touching.
Niina died last. Her cause of death was determined to be “cervical spinal cord injury caused by a backstab wound”. Additionally, her first and third tooth was found missing which suggest she was not only stabbed but also beaten. Police have found bloodstains on the futon which suggest they were attacked while sleeping. A bloodied tissue was lying on the attic's floor, presumably used by Yasuko to stop Niina’s bleeding.
After killing the family, the perpetrator went to Miyazawa’s kitchen area. He took out a few small cups of ice cream from the fridge. Strangely he didn’t use a spoon. Instead, he squeezed the containers upwards and proceeded to bite ice cream. For a drink, he chose barley tea, ignoring cola and beer left in the fridge. The kitchen is also where he had found a band-aid which he used to try to patch a wound on his right hand.
At one point, he rummaged through the family’s documents from the first-floor’s storage. He pulled out all the drawers and took one of them to the second-floor bathroom. He dumped the inside into the bathtub.
Yasuko’s personal belongings from her two handbags, Mikio’s wallet, house keys, and various documents met a similar fate. Perpetrator threw them into the toilet where he previously took care of his business. Other items, like a white towel smeared with the perpetrator’s blood and an empty cup of ice cream, were also dumped in.
What we know for sure is criminal was still at Miyazawa’s house at 1 a.m. At 1:18 a.m he connected to the Internet using Mikio’s computer. During five minutes of usage, he created a new folder and visited a theatre’s website (the site was bookmarked by Mikio). We don’t know about his later whereabouts.
For years, the public was meant to believe the perpetrator escaped in the morning due to the computer connecting to the Internet for a second time around 10 am. It wasn’t until 2014 when the police have published a bombshell: the second connection was most likely an incident. The computer mouse, found by the police, has fallen under the table and connected to Mikio’s company’s website which was set as Mikio’s homepage. Japanese police have run an experiment, using the exact type of Macintosh computer the Miyazawa family had used. They concluded the most probable outcome was Yasuko’s mother dropping a mouse by accident when she found the bodies and therefore connecting to the Internet.
This information complicated an already difficult case. The previous theory didn’t leave a lot of time for the culprit. Yasuko’s mother came to her daughter's house after 10 a.m to check on them. One of Miyazawa’s family’s relatives called the police at 10:56 a.m. This means if it were really the murderer accessing the Internet he would have little to no time to escape. With this theory being proven untrue, the perpetrator could’ve escaped anytime between 1:30 a.m and 10 a.m.
The other troubling point is the criminal‘s point of entry. Did he really use the small bathroom window? One of the investigators in an interview with Excite magazine revealed that the police had some doubts about this. He himself found the perp’s pristine state of clothes to be downright bizarre. His jacket and fanny pack bore no signs of abrasion or wear, and no linen or fiber was left on the window.
The only other way in was the front entrance. The problem is that this door was locked. For this theory to be plausible the murderer would have to be an acquaintance of the family, the kind who would be let in even in the late evening. The supporters of this theory have pointed out that the footprints left in blood were going only upwards, starting from the middle of the first-floor stairs. If the criminal wasn’t an intruder, but truly someone who was invited in, he would have been expected to remove his shoes at home’s entrance. Bloody footprints could be explained by blood making stairs slippery — forcing him to wear shoes once again.
One way or the other he must’ve used the window in some way. Police noted the bathroom window was open, with the mosquito screen removed and lying outside. Additionally, under the window, they found footprints of a size similar to the perpetrator’s one. Broken tree branches near the park’s fence are assumed to be his work as well.
Who is the perpetrator?
Due to the unprecedented nature of the murder from the very beginning, a large group of policemen was involved. To this day 280 thousand of them tried to help solve the case. At first, investigators were hopeful. The perpetrator left fingerprints, footprints, and even a blood-stained towel, which showed he has an A blood type. Their expectations were quickly shattered. Over 5 million people had their fingerprints checked: neighbors, all kinds of criminals, family friends, ex-residents, hospital patients with wounds on their hands. Police tried also DNA testing, with 1 300 000 tries. None of them have matched.
Researchers did find an intriguing piece of information. In 2005, they announced the perpetrator most likely having Southern Europe’s roots from his mother’s side. They concluded that either his mother or one of his grandparents lived came from a country close to the Adriatic Sea. His father on the other hand was an East Asian, so he could Japanese but also Korean or Chinese.
Japanese police have asked South Korea for help with identifying the culprit. It was the first request of this kind, but it was ultimately refused by the South Korean government.
Based on the physical strength needed to climb a fence and access the second-floor window, police put the culprit in the 15–35 age bracket; with his height reaching around 170 cm (5'7 ft). The hair strands found in his fanny pack suggest he had dark-brown or black, short hair.
Some speculate the intruder has an army background due to his walk style — small steps taken with back planted to a wall. According to one of the investigators, he could have walked like this to avoid slipping from the bloodied stairs.
Perpetrator’s belonging
The murderer left a lot — if not his whole outfit — behind, in Miyazawa’s living room, on their sofa. In international circles, the most attention has fallen on his fanny pack, where the police have found traces of sand, supposedly originating in Southwest of America. Curiously enough, while some Japanese newspapers did mention this finding, there is no information about it on Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s website.
The murderer’s fanny bag was a well-used one. It was relatively small — fitting an A5 notebook, and was sold in Japan from September 1995 to January 1999. The bag cost just under 30 dollars and was produced in Korea. In blacklight tests, some traces of red fluorescent agent were found as well as the perpetrator’s dark hair strands.
The muffler is the item most difficult to pin-point. It’s unknown who produced it and where it was sold. According to information police have received, the scarf was given away as a freebie at places like game centers, arcades, or uniform stores. Similar to the bag, the muffler was also well used.
Western onlookers focused on the bag but for the Japanese public, the shoes were the most interesting element. British brand Slazengers had produced this particular model in South Korea. It was sold in both South Korea and Japan, but only South Korea sold the shoe in size matching the perpetrator’s footprints. This is the second item originating from South Korea.
The shoes weren’t the only suspicious item, left by the perp. His non-descript, thin sweatshirt has also caused quite a stir. In Tokyo, only ten of them were sold in now-closed stores of M/X. Even if we count the whole country, the number stops at merely 130 articles sold.
The rest of the outfit was composed of a grey knitted bucket hat, a black padded jacket from Uniqlo, and black one-size gloves. The hat was sold from September 1999 to November 2000. The jacket, in size L, was a 2000 release, available in stores since September 2000. Gloves were produced by Japanese brand Edwin and were purchasable from 1998 to 2000. Some of the clothes retrieved by the police smelled like Drakkar Noir, a french perfume, sold in Japan since 1982.
The last items, which were given a lot of attention by Japanese police, were two black handkerchiefs, manufactured by a Japanese brand Muji. One of them was most likely used by the criminal to wrap up the murder’s weapon handle [VIDEO]. It had a three centimeters long cut in the middle of the fabric.
According to the Tokyo police’s informers, this technique is used by Chinese workers at a fish factory, to prevents the knife from slipping, when cleaning seafood.
Is it him?
Police had a lot of evidence but the one thing they lacked was witnesses. They had just two supposed sightings. The first one came from a woman, who claimed she was near the crime scene driving a car, sometime after 11:30. Suddenly she spotted a man, who rushed out of Miyazawa’s house neighborhood and jumped before her car. He managed to evade her vehicle and ran away. This information was dismissed by the police since they didn’t find any signs of blood on the street.
The other sighting happened the day after the murder. In Nikkō a man with a wound on his arm was spotted at Tōbu-Nikkō Station (around 2–3 hours away from Setagaya). He received treatment from a station worker. Once again the police didn’t find the information helpful. His wound — so deep you could see a bone — didn’t fit with the police’s image of the perpetrator’s state.
The whereabouts of the intruder are therefore unknown. What we have is an image of him before the murder. He was spotted by a supermarket camera near Kichiōji Station’s northern exit (two stations away from Ogikubo). This is where the murder weapon was purchased.
Motives
The police have created three possible motives: money, grudge, or one that is unknown to the authorities.
The money theory tends to bring a lot of skeptics out. It’s no wonder. The suspect stole only 150 thousand yen (around 1500 dollars) from Miyazawa’s house. Many doubt somebody would kill an entire family for such a negligible amount.
And yet, those cases do happen. In 2009 in the city of Kanie (near Nagoya), a Chinese exchange student killed two people and injured one, in a robbery gone wrong. All he stole was a cheap watch and the equivalent of 2000 dollars, which he intended to use to pay off his shoplifting fine.
There are a couple of downsides to this theory. First of all, for someone who wasn’t in hurry, he didn’t take all the money. He has left around 190 thousand yen and foreign currency totaling to 5 thousand yen. The method of killing was also very excessive. If it was a random kill why would he kill Yasuko and Niina who were sleeping in the attic and be so vicious in his attacks?
This brings us to the second motive: grudge. This is where the severity of the attacks comes into play. Besides Rei, who was strangled, the rest of the family met a grudgesome death. Women both Niina and Yasuko being stabbed in the face area. Could it be a grudge he held towards one of them? Or maybe he hated women?
What makes the theory even more plausible is that out of ten items left by the intruder, five could have been bought around Ogikubo Station. Police think he may have lived on the west side of Tokyo and moved by JR Chuō Line and Keiō Line, which puts him not far away from Soshigaya Park.
However, there are people who doubt this theory. Some investigators suspected, the intruder throwing away his stuff and destroying things could be camouflage and a part of an elaborate plan to take police off his tracks.
The strangeness of this murder leaves a lot of place for imagination. In reality, the murderer could have an entirely different motivation.
Rumour mill
On the international sites, one of the most popular opinions is skaters' involvement. After all, Miyazawas were living just next to the park — the noisy surroundings may have lead to some conflicts. The murderer being a skater was the Japanese police’s first theory.
The Internet provides many “testimonies”, claiming Mikio was often arguing with skaters, who were using benches in “Choo-Choo Train Park” as a ramp. As it was mentioned before, the criminal could’ve lived somewhere near Ogikubo — a place close to Soshigaya Park. It‘s possible he came in contact with the Miyazawa before the murder took place. On the other side, some point out that Slazengers would make an unusual pair of shoes for skateboarding. Plus, them being the first target mean they were presumably given a lot of attention. Their fingerprints were most likely checked as well.
In Japan, due to items left by the perpetrator (and the tendency to assume every criminal is a foreigner), the popular theory is murderer being a Korean citizen. The more sensational tale, written by a journalist Ichihashi Fumiya, tells the story of Miyazawa being involved with the Korean Unification Church. Since they didn’t want to sell off their land to church they got murdered by an assassin.
Other guesses revolve around the murderer being mentally ill or robbery gone wrong.
The Last Resort
When everything goes wrong, and the case goes cold there is just one flicker of hope. Science. A research institute in Shizuoka is currently working on establishing a more detailed look of the perp, based on DNA left at the crime scene. According to a scientist working on this case, there is a possibility of figuring out if the perpetrator had any illness, what is his skin color, and even details about his facial features.
Could this mean we will finally get an answer on who the culprit is? The Police remain skeptical. Contrary to the United States, which was built on immigrants, Japan is a homogenous country. That means there isn’t a lot of interest in finding out the family roots.
It’s difficult to imagine a case like Golden State Killer happening, but it could be the very first step to uncovering the truth.
Sources:
https://www.nikkei.com/article/Dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-_44XHQgRg&ab_channel=ANNnewsCHGXLASDG12H24_S4A211C1CC0000
https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/jiken_jiko/ichiran/ichiran_11-20/seijo.html
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20201213-OYT1T50069/
https://dot.asahi.com/dot/photoarticle/2018123000002.html?page=6
