Japan - Miyazawa family of 4 murdered, Setagaya, Tokyo, 30 Dec 2000 #2

[Interested_But_Confused]

Another possible explanation: I know that it's said Rei used to shout a lot as a result of his developmental problem. That, combined with arguments that families naturally have, could explain the noise. However, the problem with this at all is that it was said An Irie and her family heard nothing other than the single bang.

They might have thought it sounded more realistic to say they heard a small amount of noise, than to claim they heard nothing at all? If the walls are really as thin, and the soundproofing as poor as your sound engineer said, it's really hard to believe more wasn't heard.

I know this possibility must have been investigated and ruled out, but I can't help feeling a crime like this could have been the work of more than one person. Rei's killing was so different, and a second person would have more easily controlled the victims and kept them quiet.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

They might have thought it sounded more realistic to say they heard a small amount of noise, than to claim they heard nothing at all? If the walls are really as thin, and the soundproofing as poor as your sound engineer said, it's really hard to believe more wasn't heard.

I know this possibility must have been investigated and ruled out, but I can't help feeling a crime like this could have been the work of more than one person. Rei's killing was so different, and a second person would have more easily controlled the victims and kept them quiet.

The noise problem is another part of the paradox. Either there is no noise or there is all noise.

The TMPD carried out experiments with the soundproofing. I think this is what led to them finding the seeming contradiction so troubling. They recreated the bang. I can only assume they recreated screams or even sounds of a struggle on one sound of the wall to see what was heard on the other.

RE: the two assailants idea. Yes, as you say, it's been ruled out. The problem with the idea that more than one attacker was in the house is that there was simply no evidence for this. They would have to have left zero traces of themselves, along with the fact that there was blood everywhere (including pooling) in which there was only ever one set of footprints. I don't discount the idea of a lookout or getaway driver in principle, though in my heart, I believe the killer acted alone.

 

[curiousbeaver]

Thank you for all the information. It’s a particularly awful crime.

I haven’t heard this mentioned but apologies if it has been covered…. When I heard of the skater theory it made me think that it could be immediately obvious from shoe prints whether the perpetrator is a skater. My husband is a street skater. He doesn’t even do it so much these days but he can trash a new pair of shoes in two months. When he uses a ramp and performs tricks, the gripping tape on the top side of the board causes immediate wear to different parts of the shoe. It happens very quickly and is particular to skaters.

Clearly the perpetrator could have worn a different pair of shoes! I just thought I’d raise it since as I understand it, the skater theory is based on clothing style and proximity of skate ramp. You might say no evidence of unusual wear on the sole or at the edges of the shoe print could be a factor to consider when gauging whether the perp is a skater.

 

[justtrish]

I have a question about the fingerprints. Would the Japanese authorities be able to send the prints to the US to have them run through their databases to see if they match anyone in the system? If this possibly was a person connected to the AFB then they moved back to the US, I think this person likely committed other crimes and might be in the system at least with fingerprints. I've read here about the DNA and that it's not something they would use genetic genealogy for, but I just wondered if they have checked prints with any databased outside of Japan?

 

[justtrish]

I'm on the podcast episode 3 and I'm loving it. Very well done! @FacelessPodcast

I am curious if the police looked into if this could have been mistaken identity? In episode 3 it's mentioned that next door is the grandmother, and then a sibling and their spouse and teenage son also. Is it possible the killer had the wrong house and for some reason the sibling with the teen son would have been targeted for some reason?

OR is it possible if they suspect the killer is 15 to early 20s.. then is this a possible friend of the teenager that lived next door? Maybe the reason the killer knew about this family was because they had been to the house next door visiting the teenager there in the past? I'm not at all suggesting the teen relative next door knew about this before hand nor am I suggesting they were knowingly involved with anyone that would want to harm their family members. I just heard next door there was a teenager and my mind began to think through ways the killer would know about this family or this house and so I wanted to throw this idea out there.

One last thought/question. With all the empty houses in the area (it was said that only 6 homes were occupied out of I think it was 50 or 60) were they all searched well to see if anyone had been "squatting" in one of those empty homes. Would any of those empty homes have a good view of the Miyazawa home?

 

[Charlot123]

I would probably defer to @Incoherent or one of the users with more experience in Japan than me but I shall do my best!

No, I believe Mikio had no brothers. Moreover, family law is heavily weighted in the man's favour in general. I can't say why exactly the Miyazawas ended up in Soshigaya. My best guess: they were living in Tokyo, Haruko was there, it simply made sense. Setsuko, the mother of Mikio, I know had to travel in to spend time with the kids (which she did often).

From my own limited experiences in Japanese schools, while bullying and hazing is obviously a serious problem everywhere, my school in London was like Guantanamo Bay compared to what I saw in Tokyo. I do not think on any measurable level bullying is worse in Japan (however that would be measured) than, say, in the London school system which I went through, or the Southern Californian system (which I have some experience in). Maybe I would say it's fairer to qualify the societal and academic pressures in Japan as arguably more intense. But in terms of Yasuko's school, my problem with the theory that the killer was connected to it on any level is two-fold: 1) as I've said many times, the TMPD knew the killer visited the most violence on Yasuko and they believe him to be young. My guess would be her juku would be the first place they would have looked. 2) As I understand it, she was dealing with younger kids. At youngest, the TMPD believe he was 15. I would need confirmation from An Irie (very unlikely) and I'm not sure Setsuko would recall such a detail (she is well into her 90s now). So, my feeling is that the killer was outside of her range anyway. Though, as I say, happy to be corrected on that.

I have no strong thoughts either way. Not flushing is bad form in most places though!

Addresses in Japan are complicated. I don't believe that the Miyazawas' little street had a name, I think their address might have been something along the lines of: 3-chōme-23-26 Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0065, Japan. At any rate, if the killer was looking for them specifically, this only further strengthens the idea that he had watched them (which jives with the idea of there being a car parked too close to them). As for the TMPD believing he was foreign, this was speculated on by the Chief at first, and also by some press. The TMPD have no official opinion on it though.

The killer is right-handed.

Thank you very much.
@FacelessPodcast, do you happen to know if the killer left any steps on the ground and if so, whether any casts were made of them? It is my understanding that there was only one footprint...although bloodied (sorry) footprints would work, too. A lot can be said about the gait.

 

[Charlot123]

The request to use the right hand comes from Japanese parents worrying about their children being different from others and also the writing system. It is more difficult to use the correct stroke order for kanji characters if you’re left handed, and there is a specific order Japanese must be written in as well as calligraphy. These are skills all Japanese kids need to learn and being a leftie makes your life much harder growing up here. It also produces a higher chance of your writing looking “wrong” and untidy.
However for a foreign kids here I highly doubt the parents care one bit.

I noticed that another country with a disproportionately small amount of "lefties" is China. It makes sense because, as I have read, Japanese hieroglyphs were initially borrowed from Chinese, although with many transformations.

On the other hand, I have noticed that there are even fewer lefties in South Korea. This is unusual. (My first feeling in Seoul was that Korean writing could be the only one I'd potentially master, and the characters are much easier to remember.)

Sure! I can answer this.
There are no street names in Japan like in the West.
A Japanese address is generally separated into several different parts (leaving out the country as the address is here)
1. The post code
2. The prefecture
3. The city or ward
4. The neighbourhood/district/block
5. The building name (if there is one)
6. The addressee’s name

In the case of the Miyazawa’s it would be written as so:

157-0065
Tokyo
Setagaya City
Kamoshigaya 3-23-26
Miyazawa Mikio

As you can see the Miyazawa’s lived in a house so it has no name. 3-23-26 denotes the 3rd district of Kamoshigaya, block 23-26, in Setagaya City, Tokyo prefecture.

It makes a lot more sense when written in Japanese but in English that is basically how a regular Japanese address looks. Japanese houses use nameplates or have their family names outside the house near the mailbox for ease of locating too, see here of a picture I snapped of the Miyazawa’s while back:

View attachment 489874

Everywhere in Japan has metal signs on almost every street lamps and electricity poles telling you exactly where you are in terms of city, neighbourhood, district, block, etc, so you won’t get lost and it’s easy to figure out where you are.

Here is a photo of one about 10 minutes away from the house when I was there the other week:


View attachment 489875

It says ここは上祖師谷1-13
Which in English is “you are in Kamisoshigaya 1st district block 13”

Hope this helps you!

Thank you!
I read that Mazda was the first GPS-assisted car in 1990. One might assume that by 2000, GPS could be commonplace in Japanese cars. But was it really so when you first lived in the country? Furthermore, were GPS devices in 2000 easily switched from Japanese to English?

 

[Incoherent]

Thank you!
I read that Mazda was the first GPS-assisted car in 1990. One might assume that by 2000, GPS could be commonplace in Japanese cars. But was it really so when you first lived in the country? Furthermore, were GPS devices in 2000 easily switched from Japanese to English?

SBM: Another thing that is commonplace here, especially so in Tokyo, is telling people the closest train station rather than your entire address.
Tokyo has over 880 train stations (yes really!) so rather than, in the example of the Miyazawa’s, explaining the whole address off the bat when telling someone it is easier to say “we live in Chitose Karasuyama” which is their closest train station and narrows down the entire city of Setagaya to one area. Then the further info pinpoints it.
As I said the addresses make a lot of sense in Japanese so most people won’t get lost even pre-GPS.
I got here in 2009 and Japan was hugely more unfriendly in terms of any English being used or around to help foreigners who don’t speak Japanese. It is much more different these days.
Back then even regular cell phones here had no English option at all so I wouldn’t be surprised if GPS didn’t either.

 

[Charlot123]

SBM: Another thing that is commonplace here, especially so in Tokyo, is telling people the closest train station rather than your entire address.
Tokyo has over 880 train stations (yes really!) so rather than, in the example of the Miyazawa’s, explaining the whole address off the bat when telling someone it is easier to say “we live in Chitose Karasuyama” which is their closest train station and narrows down the entire city of Setagaya to one area. Then the further info pinpoints it.
As I said the addresses make a lot of sense in Japanese so most people won’t get lost even pre-GPS.
I got here in 2009 and Japan was hugely more unfriendly in terms of any English being used or around to help foreigners who don’t speak Japanese. It is much more different these days.
Back then even regular cell phones here had no English option at all so I wouldn’t be surprised if GPS didn’t either.

Thank you!

Several thoughts in general.

Let us view the “living at the base” situation.

So, what comes to mind is that perhaps a hāfu who lived at the base and was learning Japanese would inevitably stand out. @Incoherent says that the mall where the perp was buying clothes was small? He probably would be remembered. Maybe he was…

Now, Tokyo police used the phrase “living a student lifestyle”. Maybe this puts the perp into a very different group. I can’t even assume who the perpetrator could be, but looking younger could be a plus. (Everyone writes the same, children are treated very well in Japan by adults, so maybe, a lithe adolescent, too?)

Now, coming to the base. I have an inner feeling that Tokyo police still thinks, he is not Japanese, but a person with an Asian father and a European mother. If they assume H15 means, European maternal ancestry, it is ridiculous to me. Centuries ago, perhaps… but the mother’s ethnicity is not defined by her mitogroup. I simply don’t know if LE did in-depth ethnic studies of autosomal DNA. (They knew about Y and mito, so maybe they see mixed autosomal ancestry, too?) But let us assume that the perp had a higher chance to hide in a city being an Asian or a half-Asian and speaking good Japanese. (Everything else is a sharp minus. My husband, a basketball-height Caucasian, said he felt awkward using Tokyo subway. He probably could scale any Japanese house but would never pass unnoticed).

Let us imagine the perp is living at a Yokota base. A base is a city in a city. Even if he spent many years there, the only way he’d really learn the language would be from the family. And later, maybe the base kids were allowed to attend some local schools but this had some caveats.

And I bet the police still thinks, he is of Korean ancestry. Whatever the reality is, I assume whatever they saw, pointed at Asian or mixed ethnicity.

So several scenarios come to mind.

A. parents or grandparents grew up in Korea, migrated to Japan, lived there and speak Japanese very well. Perhaps, spoke at home. (This is a very possible scenario. Everything that happened in Korea since 1917 (the Russian tzarist regime that fell in 1917 was somehow protective of Korea in view of its own anti-Japanese state) till the end of Korean War was one unbelievably tragic convoluted situation, but as the result, many Koreans ended up living and working in Japan and speaking Japanese.) Then, the parents or grandparents moved to the US after the Korean War or later. Maybe they were viewed as third class citizens in Japan and maybe they bore grudges, but Japanese was spoken very well at home, and the child learned it by immersion. Then they were contracted at the military base and lived there, perhaps Japanese was a plus, so the perp is bilingual.

B. The parental situation is similar or they are born and bred Americans of any ethnicity. However, the perpetrator was adopted in Korea or Japan. (Have seen it, many times. Know some Caucasians, Christians, who are into adoption; some have adopted kids all over the world, and some, several from the same Asian country.) This will make any genetic tests complex; the biggest genetic database for Asians is in China. But, it puts the kid into a very complex situation for many reasons. This scenario would explain why he doesn’t stand out in looks or why he is fluent in Japanese.

C. He has very flimsy connection to any US base, if any. Bases here are not that protected; for one, everyone knows where they are. One funny scenario that comes to mind is a base in Washington. Not only they have expositions, but there is a mini-golf club next to it. I assume the sand at that club is local. So maybe there is a similar club next to Edwards air base? Here is one’s sand from the desert.

D. In general, I am skeptical about the sand being that uber-unique, the quartz they found in that sand is the result of the weathering of rock formations. Now, rock formations, especially old pegmatite ones, come from the time of Pangea continent splitting. I read somewhere that the Ural Mountains were once in continuum with some mountains in India, hence the alexandrites are found in both. Maybe it is not that straightforward, but one needs to move the continents together and see where else the same mountainous type as in CA/NV can be found, with the sands around.

E. He is a local. Tokyo LE was led astray by the factor of group mentality. Can be so, too. Can live close till now, who knows.

 

[Charlot123]

Another thought I can not shed is the grudge towards the Miyazawas based on mistaken identity. It is a Japanese family name, they even had a PM with such a name. There is one Brazilian Miyazawa (I can never discount Brazilian/Japanese ethnicity of the perp, btw, although not that one, of course).

However, maybe there was some Miyazawa during WWII whose name got into some textbooks? Not US ones. Perhaps someone viewed this family as someone’s descendants?

@Incoherent and everyone else, how common is it in Japan to make family trees? I wonder if what the perp was looking for was the proof, like a family album or picture, and he did not find it?

 

[FacelessPodcast]

Thank you for all the information. It’s a particularly awful crime.

I haven’t heard this mentioned but apologies if it has been covered…. When I heard of the skater theory it made me think that it could be immediately obvious from shoe prints whether the perpetrator is a skater. My husband is a street skater. He doesn’t even do it so much these days but he can trash a new pair of shoes in two months. When he uses a ramp and performs tricks, the gripping tape on the top side of the board causes immediate wear to different parts of the shoe. It happens very quickly and is particular to skaters.

Clearly the perpetrator could have worn a different pair of shoes! I just thought I’d raise it since as I understand it, the skater theory is based on clothing style and proximity of skate ramp. You might say no evidence of unusual wear on the sole or at the edges of the shoe print could be a factor to consider when gauging whether the perp is a skater.

This is a great point. I can't say how far the TMPD went into the micro detail of the skater theory, but I can tell you they went after skateboarders pretty hard. What's interesting, is that there is nothing really here that suggests he's a skater. As I'm sure you've seen from the pictures, the killer did NOT wear skate shoes. And the point about the grip tape in his bag -- I don't know where that originated from.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

I have a question about the fingerprints. Would the Japanese authorities be able to send the prints to the US to have them run through their databases to see if they match anyone in the system? If this possibly was a person connected to the AFB then they moved back to the US, I think this person likely committed other crimes and might be in the system at least with fingerprints. I've read here about the DNA and that it's not something they would use genetic genealogy for, but I just wondered if they have checked prints with any databased outside of Japan?

In theory, I think this would be possible. Whether this happened, I can't say. I can tell you, at the nearest city to Edwards AFB, the local police had never heard of this crime. TMPD had never been in touch. They did, however, lodge the killer's fingerprints with Interpol. How that works, I have no clue - does someone arrested for battery in Alaska automatically ping the red notice the second their prints are taken if they had murdered four people in Japan 23 years ago?

However, it's also entirely possible the killer went to the US and never committed another crime again. The idea that killers always have to repeat, I think it's something of a misconception. Or, then there's the possibility that he did commit other crimes but simply was never caught. Half of all homicides go unsolved in the US.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

I'm on the podcast episode 3 and I'm loving it. Very well done! @FacelessPodcast

So glad to hear this, @justtrish! Thank you for listening

I am curious if the police looked into if this could have been mistaken identity? In episode 3 it's mentioned that next door is the grandmother, and then a sibling and their spouse and teenage son also. Is it possible the killer had the wrong house and for some reason the sibling with the teen son would have been targeted for some reason?

Yes, next door it was Haruko, the maternal grandmother, "An Irie", the sister of Yasuko, and her husband and teen son. Is it possible the killer was targeting them? Yes, it's possible. The great paradox here is knowing so much about the killer but his motive is a complete unknown.

OR is it possible if they suspect the killer is 15 to early 20s.. then is this a possible friend of the teenager that lived next door? Maybe the reason the killer knew about this family was because they had been to the house next door visiting the teenager there in the past? I'm not at all suggesting the teen relative next door knew about this before hand nor am I suggesting they were knowingly involved with anyone that would want to harm their family members. I just heard next door there was a teenager and my mind began to think through ways the killer would know about this family or this house and so I wanted to throw this idea out there.

Also possible, though in my own experience, visiting someone's house is generally a lot rarer than say in the US or Europe and I think the boy was 12 or 13. So, again, possible. But those immediate connections -who the family knew and spent time with- that would have to be where the TMPD started with, surely. I can only imagine it wouldn't have been beyond them to look at An Irie's family and their circle. Basically, anyone that came to the address with any frequency.

One last thought/question. With all the empty houses in the area (it was said that only 6 homes were occupied out of I think it was 50 or 60) were they all searched well to see if anyone had been "squatting" in one of those empty homes. Would any of those empty homes have a good view of the Miyazawa home?

So there were originally 200 homes but they were all demolished. That left four houses. One unoccupied, we assume already sold. I think it would be reasonable to conclude the TMPD searched that almost immediately. The other three were the Miyazawa home; An Irie's family next door; and the couple just opposite. The police eliminated them from the investigation immediately and they heard / saw nothing. So other than the one, no empty homes in the immediate area.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

Thank you very much.
@FacelessPodcast, do you happen to know if the killer left any steps on the ground and if so, whether any casts were made of them? It is my understanding that there was only one footprint...although bloodied (sorry) footprints would work, too. A lot can be said about the gait.

I don't know about casts but the TMPD do have detailed 3D models. I assume something similar has been done with his footprints. Outside, they found them in the mud beneath the bathroom window. And then obviously throughout the house in all the blood. I do not that there was disagreement over his shoe size, though. Some said 27cm (available in Japan in that shoe model), others said 27.5cm (not available in Japan).

 

[FacelessPodcast]

Let us imagine the perp is living at a Yokota base. A base is a city in a city. Even if he spent many years there, the only way he’d really learn the language would be from the family. And later, maybe the base kids were allowed to attend some local schools but this had some caveats.

SMB: Obviously experiences will vary but I can tell you that my POI was learning Japanese throughout his education while on-base in Japan. From the looks of it, he was getting extremely good marks in this area. So, for a bright student, living in Japan, and learning Japanese on a frequent basis for at least five years, I see no problems with such a person negotiating a simple keyboard or shuffling through documents in that house.

So several scenarios come to mind.

A. parents or grandparents grew up in Korea, migrated to Japan, lived there and speak Japanese very well. Perhaps, spoke at home.

In the case of my POI, you're not far off. Except they didn't go to Japan.

C. He has very flimsy connection to any US base, if any. Bases here are not that protected; for one, everyone knows where they are. One funny scenario that comes to mind is a base in Washington. Not only they have expositions, but there is a mini-golf club next to it. I assume the sand at that club is local. So maybe there is a similar club next to Edwards air base? Here is one’s sand from the desert.

I disagree with this. I've been to Edwards. Or as close as you can get to it without being stopped by the men in black. Basically, there is absolutely nothing around it. But the base itself is obviously very well protected. Yokota has an annual open day, of course. I've said many times that the killer has a fairly clear connection to US air bases which I won't hash over again; but let's turn it around. If the killer has no connection to Edwards AFB, then who could get that sand, then go to Mabori Beach (where Yokosuka Naval Base is), pick up sand there too, then disappear for 23 years leaving no record at any Japanese port? The son of a USAF man of course isn't the only possible answer to this. But for me, it's by some distance the best fit seeing as it answers most of the questions thrown up by the murders.

D. In general, I am skeptical about the sand being that uber-unique, the quartz they found in that sand is the result of the weathering of rock formations. Now, rock formations, especially old pegmatite ones, come from the time of Pangea continent splitting. I read somewhere that the Ural Mountains were once in continuum with some mountains in India, hence the alexandrites are found in both. Maybe it is not that straightforward, but one needs to move the continents together and see where else the same mountainous type as in CA/NV can be found, with the sands around.

I am a science dunce but I can only say to google the work of Lorna Dawson.

E. He is a local. Tokyo LE was led astray by the factor of group mentality. Can be so, too. Can live close till now, who knows.

Possible but the idea that he's still walking around now, just living off his wits and luck for 23 years? Hard to believe.

 

[vls12345]

About the entry point...

I feel like the likeliest is by using the vehicle in the driveway for a boost up onto the balcony & in.

I know it's unlikely that the perp came to the front door & gained entry that way. But, I think there's a slim possibility. Could he have knocked at the door & asked for help, a telephone call, or to use the bathroom? Someone else mentioned that possibly Mikio heard the attempt at the bathroom window & went outside to check. Could the perp have sneaked in then? If the perp is possibly American, he might have left his shoes on rather than removing them at the door as would be typical. And, if you're going to kill, what does it matter if you snub the cultural norm to remove your shoes at the door? I think the shoes being worn doesn't necessarily exclude the front door as an entry point.

Sorry, I can't remember, what is the theory on how the perp exited the house? Front door? Was there any kind of blood trail related to his exit?

Also, Faceless, in your investigation of a possible perp, what kinds of personality traits does that person have? Are they gregarious? Friendly? Isolated?

MOO.

 

[Incoherent]

Re: the keyboard being in Japanese and the killer potentially not understanding how to use it (I’m really sorry I can’t find who asked the question originally!) Japanese keyboards are still QWERTY keyboards with Roman letters as well as Japanese kana on the keys. The Roman letters are needed for inputting web and email addresses etc, and typical one from the 80’s-90’s would be like this:

The PC however would’ve been in Japanese. But my point is, even if the killer didn’t know any Japanese he still could’ve used the PC fairly easily by the icons and keyboard.

@Charlot123 re: family trees, families here are very aware of the generations of their families as it’s important to pay respect to them. Family houses even often have a small shrine in their home to honour dead relatives going way back called a “butsudan”. I feel like if the killer was related to the family in any way someone would be aware of him. JMO.

@FacelessPodcast at least 5 years learning Japanese while in Japan and also relatively young and in school would be more than enough to have a solid grip on the language. I learned enough to have very few problems in Japanese in all aspects of life in 2 years less than that by just living here.
The more info you’re releasing about your POI the more I believe he blended into Japan incredibly well by the time he left.

Another thing for people to consider: mask culture in Japan has been around for decades. People here wear masks for the flu, hayfever, it’s too cold outside, even if they’re just hungover or can’t be bothered to do their make up! Masks are everywhere.
If the killer looked almost like everyone else here due to his Korean ancestry, wearing a mask during winter time could seal the deal on him looking just like everyone else.

 

[Charlot123]

SMB: Obviously experiences will vary but I can tell you that my POI was learning Japanese throughout his education while on-base in Japan. From the looks of it, he was getting extremely good marks in this area. So, for a bright student, living in Japan, and learning Japanese on a frequent basis for at least five years, I see no problems with such a person negotiating a simple keyboard or shuffling through documents in that house.

In the case of my POI, you're not far off. Except they didn't go to Japan.

I disagree with this. I've been to Edwards. Or as close as you can get to it without being stopped by the men in black. Basically, there is absolutely nothing around it. But the base itself is obviously very well protected. Yokota has an annual open day, of course. I've said many times that the killer has a fairly clear connection to US air bases which I won't hash over again; but let's turn it around. If the killer has no connection to Edwards AFB, then who could get that sand, then go to Mabori Beach (where Yokosuka Naval Base is), pick up sand there too, then disappear for 23 years leaving no record at any Japanese port? The son of a USAF man of course isn't the only possible answer to this. But for me, it's by some distance the best fit seeing as it answers most of the questions thrown up by the murders.

I am a science dunce but I can only say to google the work of Lorna Dawson.

Possible but the idea that he's still walking around now, just living off his wits and luck for 23 years? Hard to believe.

Thanks for answering! I once followed the Delphi case. The abundance of the suspects and constantly changing theories and pois made my head spin. As time has shown, however, LE’s initial idea that the man “knew the lay of the land” and was local was correct. But it probably was the only thing where they were not wrong.

So I hope that here, too, the police intuitively got the correct feeling about the perpetrator not being from Japan. (However, the Japanese murder that was recently solved using DNA had amply demonstrated that the killer might be local, respected and live in the same community).

About Japanese language, very interesting. I suspect that the perp had to have some immersion outside the base, too. That the.perp is bright makes the case very difficult. Outsiders with high IQ can "mask" much better.

About the base, I defer to your opinion. I just don’t want LE to stick to one scenario and disregard alternative versions. I read of Lorna Dawson's opinion. Are all sands in the world unique? I don't know, and can't subscribe to any theory.

 

[Charlot123]

About An Irie's family not hearing the noises.
If Rei was behind, maybe, barely verbal, he could be prone to head-banging. If so, this could explain why the noises were totally misinterpreted.

I don't know how the perp chose the Miyazawas. Perhaps his luck lay in the correct choice of the victims. They had no connection to him, and he was a stranger to them.

I think he did stalk them, though. I doubt he spent a lot of time among the skateboarders. Once, maybe. But he had many chances to observe the Miyazawas. Where? If we answer this, we have a clue.

About the family. IMHO, there is certain projection here. @FacelessPodcast, you say that the father was strict, but the way the perp treated Rei and Mikio, I suspect he is rather indifferent to men. MOO - he views women as his adversaries. He did quite a job on poor Niina and especially, Yasuko.

And then you look at the Miyazawa family. I came across an interesting word describing people like Mikio in my mother tongue, "the botanists" (i.e., nerdish, science-inclined and harmless). Not so Yasuko. Opposite attracts, they say. She is strong, she stands out, and she is emotional. One wonders if in the perp's family, the layout was not dissimilar. The father, an obsessive perfectionist. The mother, emotional, perhaps slightly over the top. One wonders if she was even present in their lives by the time of the murders. Even if she was, I doubt that she and his father are married now. Somewhere along the line, she must have left. I don't know how (simply got free? Or got sick and was in the hospital?). The abandonment wounded the perp. Who did he attack the most viciously? Yasuko. What made him angry? JMO - the fact that she stayed by Niina and took care of her.

Yasuko was not totally trapped. She could scream, maybe she could have run. But she stayed, to protect the child and fight for her. It angered the killer.

So even if there was a girlfriend, i doubt that the split drove him overboard. More likely, it was some conflict between him and his mother. Because if you are right, @FacelessPodcast, and they were from the base, look how the killer manipulated his "strict" father into helping him.

I even wonder if the parents had already split, perhaps the mother took the sibling, and left him. Or if she stayed, the killer was angry that she did not protect him. I don't know the pattern of his relationships with women, but if he still hunts, then he is 1) likely to attack women; 2) who are strangers; 3) judges women and hates "emotionally unavailable mothers". I feel there is some mess, he hates himself (unloved?) and takes it on women. I might be wrong, of course, but men he learned to manipulate.

I hope Yasuko fought him, and scratched him, too.

 

[Charlot123]

Re: the keyboard being in Japanese and the killer potentially not understanding how to use it (I’m really sorry I can’t find who asked the question originally!) Japanese keyboards are still QWERTY keyboards with Roman letters as well as Japanese kana on the keys. The Roman letters are needed for inputting web and email addresses etc, and typical one from the 80’s-90’s would be like this:
View attachment 490601
The PC however would’ve been in Japanese. But my point is, even if the killer didn’t know any Japanese he still could’ve used the PC fairly easily by the icons and keyboard.

@Charlot123 re: family trees, families here are very aware of the generations of their families as it’s important to pay respect to them. Family houses even often have a small shrine in their home to honour dead relatives going way back called a “butsudan”. I feel like if the killer was related to the family in any way someone would be aware of him. JMO.

@FacelessPodcast at least 5 years learning Japanese while in Japan and also relatively young and in school would be more than enough to have a solid grip on the language. I learned enough to have very few problems in Japanese in all aspects of life in 2 years less than that by just living here.
The more info you’re releasing about your POI the more I believe he blended into Japan incredibly well by the time he left.

Another thing for people to consider: mask culture in Japan has been around for decades. People here wear masks for the flu, hayfever, it’s too cold outside, even if they’re just hungover or can’t be bothered to do their make up! Masks are everywhere.
If the killer looked almost like everyone else here due to his Korean ancestry, wearing a mask during winter time could seal the deal on him looking just like everyone else.

@Incoherent, thank you for commenting. I am thinking about a different situation.

The list of war crimes during WWII has been huge. Japan has been apologizing and apologizing. Ironically, the man who seem to be apologizing the most was Japanese PM Miyazawa.

List of war apology statements issued by Japan - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

But each time someone issues an apology, someone is unhappy and says that it is not the right way to apologize. Well, that war had torn the world, and it happens everywhere.

List of war apology statements issued by Japan - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Now, I have noticed that some Japanese names are common. For example, there was a Japanese PM Tanaka (who also profusely apologized), but lo and behold, another Tanaka had been mentioned as the Nanjing massacre participant… I am sure they are unrelated, Tanaka is merely a common name, but what if someone, whose family struggled during WWII, and who had homicidal urges, had decided to find a victim according to that principle? Something like blood revenge. There are four family lines among victims, we know only one name, but there are at least three more. The perpetrator might have chosen the family, or the maternal family basing on the name and nothing else, or he could be truly looking for the descendants of “that person”. And this is why he was rummaging through the drawers - trying to see family documents or photos.

Now, I still think that the perpetrator merely wanted to kill. Plus, he probably was a grudge collector. But if he were caught, he could be preparing an ideal defense line, especially if the perpetrator was young and had family roots in South Korea, China, Burma, etc. “Your honor, my grandparents died because of this person’s grandparents”. And - if it was an unrelated family, it would be an “oops, mistake” case.

Now, I don’t think that the guy was truly driven by revenge or thought he was related to the family, but he could be preparing a “revenge alibi” in case he would be caught.

Alternatively, he could have simply taken some souvenirs or photos with him. He was leaving soon. Maybe something from the crime scene, and I suspect it was a document or a photo. This is why I am trying to understand what exactly he was searching for.