Japan - Miyazawa family of 4 murdered, Setagaya, Tokyo, 30 Dec 2000 #3

[FlowersInBloom]

@Charlot123 a few pages back @Incoherent posted videos of all of the questions you are asking and went into the park, the path by the river, shows where the houses opposite are, and the road to the side with the skateboard park and tennis courts. I recommend you go and watch those as it gives a very good look at just what it is like there.
There is a rhetoric that this entire area was abandoned, as you say, but it actually was not and was (and still is from those videos) a very lively neighbourhood. It is just that the last remaining houses on the plot of land where the park is do stand alone.
If you cannot find the videos I can link them to you here later.

 

[Sor Juana]

The theory that the Miyazawa family killer might be connected to a US military base has been considered by TMPD but remains unproven. Initial speculations arose because of sand found at the crime scene, which was thought to possibly originate from California or the Miura Peninsula. However, no direct link has been established between the sand and any specific military base in California. The idea was popularised by internet discussions and some media reports but lacks backing from LE. Mainstream Japanese media outlets like The Japan Times, Mainichi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun etc have not provided any coverage connecting the suspect to a US military base. In my opinion, this would be the easiest and quickest angle to investigate, given that the suspect is (can be) localised. Whether the police have or have not forensically explored this possibility remains unknown.

J-CAST and Smart FLASH are generally considered to be less authoritative compared to major news outlets. They often focus on more sensational stories and may not always provide the most reliable or in-depth reporting. Nevertheless, here are a couple of reports from the past that some might find interesting.

The Setagaya Family Murders and "Memory of Sand"
The Metropolitan Police Department is pursuing a "part-time yakiniku restaurant employee"

 

[Hausos]

So was the 285,000+ investigating the case miswritten? Did they mean hours? If not, that’s quite impressive, to have that many “investigators” on a case.

There’s been glaring issues when it comes to high profile crime/homicides. I think with Japan’s relatively low crime rate and h/o “low profile crime” or “petty crime” perhaps more serious crimes are just way more difficult.

Japan dropped the ball big time when it came to the biggest terrorist in Japanese history. He was found to be living in Tokyo in public sight for decades. Despite having swathes of evidence.

It took several years to apprehend Ichihasi for the murder of Hawker. He ran away from the police on barefoot in public sight from the scene of the crime. Left behind loads of evidence including fingerprints. Was a massive scandal at the time.

Toshikazu Sugaya was falsely accused and coerced into a confession for murdering three children (sometimes he was violently interrogated non-stop) however it was later found out that parts of Sugaya’s confession were impossible and the DNA testing method was imprecise. He was released.

Anyway following the theory the killer is America and supposedly living in America right now, if Japan isn’t going to bother pursuing that angle (exploring the sand, DNA, etc) then I don’t think this case is ever going to get solved. Unless we get a deathbed confession.

Also if it’s the son of military personnel, not a military man proper (which would be way more believable) that is even more perplexing (goes back to my motive question). I guess the prevailing theory is that he got angry at seeing a happy family and wanted to murder them out of range … but… this motive is a bit weird imo.

It just seems surreal there’s supposedly been 285,000+ investigators on the case and “thousands of evidence” obtained as quoted yet it doesn’t seem like theres any progress made.

 

[Hausos]

Does anyone know if Yasuko only taught children in her cram school or if her cram school also included teaching/preparing teenagers for university? There are many cram schools in Japan that also help young adults and high school kids.

 

[FlowersInBloom]

@Hausos if you go back through the last 2 threads the answers to all your questions about motives, the military son, students, Yasuko’s work, etc, are all there in detail.

 

[Sor Juana]

Does anyone know if Yasuko only taught children in her cram school or if her cram school also included teaching/preparing teenagers for university? There are many cram schools in Japan that also help young adults and high school kids.

I don't have a source at hand, so from memory, Yasuko primarily taught young children, focusing on early childhood education. Whether she made exceptions on occasion and took on older students is not known.