Kobe child murders

On 10 February 1997, Shinichiro Azuma attacked two twelve-year-old sixth-grade students of Minami-Ochiai Elementary School, at around 16:35 near an apartment complex in Nakaochiai district. The two girls were returning home when Azuma struck them in the back of the head. One of the injured girls required a week of treatment for her injuries. Ayaka Yamashita On 16 March 1997, at around 12:25, Azuma bludgeoned ten-year-old Ayaka Yamashita, a fourth-grade student of Ryugadai Elementary School, near a residential building in Ryugadai, causing her death the following week. Ten minutes after the attack, Azuma stabbed and injured a nine-year-old girl with a 13-cm dagger outside of Tatsugaoka Park. for this... Please continue to protect me." As revealed in Azuma's manuscript, "13 Years Imprisonment" ("懲役十三年"), "Bamoidōkishin" refers to an apparent deity, evidenced by the character 神 for "kami," whom he claimed to have "created from hatred" in his childhood. The manuscript details a contract which would end with Azuma serving thirteen years in prison for committing murders as part of a "crime pact" to pledge allegiance with "Bamoidōkishin" in exchange for forgiveness of the same crimes. On 15 May, Azuma stopped attending his third-year class at Tomogaoka Junior High School after an incident two days earlier in which he had phoned a classmate for a meeting in the park and then punched him in the mouth, chipping some of the classmate's teeth by wrapping his watch around the fist. Azuma's parents regularly took him to a child psychiatrist during this time. The assault was considered the high point in a number of other "eccentric delinquent acts" at Azuma's school, including stealing and burning other students' shoes, hitting people with a table tennis racket and slashing bicycle tires with a box cutter. Jun Hase Just before 14:00 on 24 May 1997, while walking a street of Tomogaoka, Azuma encountered eleven-year-old Jun Hase, a special education pupil at Tainohata Elementary School, where Azuma had attended primary education. Hase was lured to Tank Mountain in Taihata, where Azuma claimed that he would show Hase a turtle. There, Azuma overpowered Hase and fatally strangled him with the boy's own shoelaces. He stole a hacksaw and padlock from a nearby co-op supermarket, then broke into an empty television relay station on the mountain in which he hid Hase's body. Hase was reported missing by his family the same evening. On 25 May, Azuma returned to the station, where he beheaded Hase's body between 13:00 and 15:00. He further mutilated Hase's head by stabbing out both eyes, cutting into both cheeks and unsuccessfully attempting to cut out the tongue. Azuma took the head and left Hase's body inside the station. Azuma used the term "vegetables" to refer to people around him; he had learned this term from his parents, who had once told him, "If you are nervous at your sports day, picture the people around you as vegetables." According to Azuma, he wrote the word "SHOOLL KILL" because he believed it to be English for "school killer." The note also included a symbol which Azuma later described as "inspired by the inverted swastika of Nazi Germany", after reading Mein Kampf while in elementary school. == Investigation ==

Hase's decapitated body was found at the relay station a few hours after the discovery of his head. Newspapers connected the killing of Hase to the schoolgirl attacks in February and March. Having heard of the discovery of Hase's remains, Azuma was surprised that his murder site was found in addition to the head. Journalists initially thought that "Sakakibara" was a "highly-educated" adult man in his thirties due to the formal kanji used in the letters. However, linguists noted that these expressions were common in popular manga and it was suggested that the perpetrator was not a social person since the texts weren't very colloquial, to the point where it was considered that the writer was a Chinese speaker. There were two prevailing descriptions of middle-aged men in menial workwear reported around Tank Mountain at the time of Hase's murder. There was the "Padlock Man," who was seen at the same supermarket where Azuma had stolen tools. Another was the "Scooter Man," who was seen driving a scooter near the mountain. Both men were identified in mid-June and quickly dismissed as suspects. Other reports focused on suspicious vehicles seen during the previous attacks, either a black Nissan Bluebird sedan or white van, with varying descriptions of their drivers. Rumours persisted until Azuma's arrest. The newspaper Sankei Shimbun speculated that the perpetrator was left-handed due to the angle of wounds inflicted on the injured girl on 16 March. According to police reports, however, the investigation believed that the perpetrator was right-handed due to noticeable pressure marks found on the base of Hase's head. Letter On 6 June, the letter was sent to the newspaper Kobe Shinbun. Enclosed was a three-page, 1400-character letter, also written in red ink, which included a six-character name that can be pronounced as "Sakakibara Seito." The same characters, which mean "alcohol," "devil," "rose," "saint" and "fight", were used in the first message that was left inside Hase's mouth. In the letter, "Sakakibara" claimed responsibility for the killing and mutilation of Jun Hase, threatening that more killings would follow. He included the slightly revised signature "SHOOLL KILLER." Azuma had begun the letter by addressing a mistake made by a local TV broadcaster, which mispronounced the "Sakakibara" name as "Onibara" – "Demon Rose," which he disliked, writing that he wanted to be called by his "real name." The letter largely blamed the Japanese educational system for his actions, claiming "compulsory education formed me, an invisible person." Azuma also accused police of putting no effort into the investigation to "cover up [his] existence," which was supposedly a recurring event in his life. He claimed that his crimes differed from "pathetic revenge" in that he stylised the murders as a game which created for him "a new world all your own," further writing, "I am putting my life at stake for the sake of this game... If I'm caught, I'll probably be hanged... police should be angrier and more tenacious in pursuing me." Azuma stated that he was driven by a natural urge to kill, writing, "It's only when I kill that I am liberated from the constant hatred that I suffer and that I am able to attain peace. It is only when I give pain to people that I can ease my own pain." At the end of the letter, he wrote, "From now on, if you misread my name or spoil my mood I will kill three vegetables a week. If you think I can only kill children you are greatly mistaken. I have the ability to kill the same person twice." Custody and confession Azuma was given a voluntary order to be questioned by police in Hase's murder on 28 June. He first denied involvement, but after police claimed to have matched his handwriting, Azuma started crying and confessed to killing Hase, as well as Yamashita. He also admitted to attacking three other girls. Azuma was then officially arrested for murder and abandonment of a corpse. == Treatment ==

Azuma was tried at Kobe Family Court beginning 4 August 1997 A psychological examination determined that Azuma had conduct disorder and some symptoms of depersonalisation and dissociation, although these were not significant enough to result in diminished responsibility as he was otherwise aware of his actions. Azuma had been receiving psychiatric treatment since 1995 and was previously diagnosed with ADHD. It was noted that he had a history of torturing and killing animals, starting with insects and frogs in fifth grade; he later admitted to killing at least twenty cats by his mid-teens. In elementary school, he also had a habit of making dirt sculptures with sharp blades hidden inside. In 1999, an out-of-court settlement was reached following a lawsuit by Yamashita's family, who were set to receive 80,000,000 yen in compensation. Azuma remained in juvenile custody after reaching age of majority with his eighteenth birthday. In November 2001 he was transferred to Tohoku Juvenile Training School due to a good assessment in rehabilitation by staff. ==Aftermath and controversy==

After the murders, Representative Shizuka Kamei called for restricting objectionable content, blaming the murders on graphic movies and stating that "[the incident] gives adults the chance to rethink the policy of self-imposed restrictions on these films and whether they should allow them just because they are profitable." Through 1997 and 1998, a faction of the Japan Revolutionary Communist League led a number of break-ins at facilities holding case files related to the murders, illegally distributing the information under the belief that "Boy A" was wrongfully accused as part of a government conspiracy, in what is known as the . Azuma's parents divorced following his arrest. His father left Kobe and changed his name, publishing a book entitled "Boy A: Birthing this Child" (「少年A」この子を生んで……), with all proceeds going to Yamashita's family. Although Azuma's father was apologetic for his son's actions, he was criticised for not knowing the names of Azuma's victims in the non-fatal assaults. In 2000, Japan's bicameral legislature lowered the age for criminal responsibility from 16 to 14. However, in the wake of the murder of Satomi Mitarai in Sasebo in 2004, there has been some discussion for the need for further revision. On 11 March 2004, in an unprecedented act, the Ministry of Justice announced that Azuma, then aged 21, was being released on a provisional basis, with a full release to follow on 1 January 2005. He was set to live by himself on the property of his probation officer in Saitama Prefecture. Critics charged that since the government had taken the unusual step of notifying the public, Azuma was likely not fit for release and should be transferred to prison. In the wake of the Sasebo incident three months later, this criticism was exacerbated. Due to the seriousness of the murders and the fact that they had been committed by a minor, Azuma's name and new residence to this day remain a highly guarded secret, hence why he was typically referred to by the official alias "Boy A" or the self-given moniker "Seito Sakakibara." Nonetheless, Azuma's real name has been circulated on the internet since 29 June 1997, according to journalist Fumihiko Takayama. In June 2015, Azuma, then aged 32, released an autobiography through Ohta Publishing titled Zekka (絶歌), in which he claimed to express regret for his crimes and recounted the murders in graphic detail. Despite attempts by Hase's family to block its release, and despite one bookstore chain refusing to stock it, the book quickly reached the top of Japanese bestseller lists. Azuma earned an estimated 10,000,000 yen through the sales. A few months later, Azuma set up a website in which he posted bizarre photoshopped images of a nude male, suggested to be himself. In response to these controversies, the tabloid Shūkan Post publicized Azuma's real name, as well as his location and occupation at the time. ==See also==