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.

 

[Charlot123]

I do realise that taxi drivers were surveyed extensively. However, it all comes down to the questions they were asked. If they were asked about a single man wearing a sweater with "DIVE" on it, having his wrist bandaged, and travelling from Point Zero (which was close enough to the crime scene), there could be a variety of answers. Apparently, there wasn't a single answer that fit all criteria.

If a taxi driver did not notice a bandaged wrist or if the passenger was wearing a dark trench coat and was calm and polite, this passenger would not attract attention. Let's assume all single men, regardless of their clothes, had to be reported. The police could then receive numerous reports about men catching cabs at different places and going to different locations.

If there were many such reports, how could the TMPD track all those passengers down if they all paid in cash? These days, people use cards, so the police could have transactions to follow. But if you have many reports that partially fit the picture, it leads nowhere.

We don't know if the police got anything potentially interesting, as they only disclose what they think is useful to disclose. Maybe they have no leads and no particularly interesting information about taxi passengers. I do not favour this scenario, but I don't see why it should be dismissed as impossible.

Re: distance, to drive from Setagaya and Shibuya at night takes about 15 min, to walk - 1.5hr for a young athletic man. Although, the closest rout out of Setagaya would be towards the east to Meguro Ward. If you start from Setagaya City Hall, and walk eastwards towards the Meguro Ward boundary, it would take roughly 30-40 min.

I also find that the sweater is a bit conspicuous and would likely be picked up by cameras, even with poor resolution. Now, just an idea, half-serious—what if he wore the sweater inside out, either on purpose or inadvertently, to make the letters invisible? Was it a print or real embroidery? Or maybe he found an old raincoat or a loose trench coat of Mikio's that fit, something Mikio did not wear very often, so the siblings would not remember it. But if he did have a car, in that scenario, it wouldn’t matter what he wore.

I am not sure he could take a taxi. Don’t you think he’d smell? Even if he took a bath.

 

[Charlot123]

The house(s) photos from the web

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Thank you!

Now the top photo. Is the house in the right lower corner the “house across the street”? It is incredibly close. I understand that the photo is taken at an angle, but it is still very close. Was there a paved road between them? It looks like grass on the sides and some kind of covering between houses. Not even sure if it is asphalt.

I understand that the photo is taken on the morning of the day when the bodies were found? In front of the house I see a policeman in uniform, another man in dark holding something long and another person in something lighter, tan-colored. And there is a man behind the house. Is he a policeman? He looks slightly out of place.

 

[Charlot123]

This is actually one of the main problems w this case imo: the motive aspect. If we figure out the motive, we’d get really far. Regardless if the prep is American or Japanese, I can’t seem to understand his motive was. If this is a random rage crime, it seems to be more “Japanese”.

RSBM

The motive would be great, but in many cases, the true motive still remains unknown. Take Moscow, Idaho murders, for example. If they prove BK’s involvement, we still won’t know the true reason. The privacy and dignity of the victims is always protected. Yes, he has clear mental issues, they have been mentioned in the threads, but I still have my questions as to why he chose precisely that house.

Same with the Miyazawas, I think. What we know about them is too superficial. The problem is, people may be totally asinine and outwardly behave normally. I read somewhere that Niina was gracious and dreamed of becoming a ballerina. Photos show a beautiful girl, not a child, rather, a tween. She was also a very kind girl. When there was a new boy in her school that was not accepted, she was the one who befriended him, for example. And I am thinking, maybe there was someone else, older, in that school who got jealous and angry? Or take Mikio’s interest in aeroplanes. There probably were many boards about them, someone could have approached him via these boards. Or these dinosaurs that Rei’s grandmother kept on cutting out for him after the murders. Perhaps Rei and dad went to a dinosaur exhibition or maybe they have a museum in Tokyo? Here

TF Top 10……Must-See Dinosaur-Related Places In Japan

Since 1993 there have been half a dozen Jurassic Park/World films (as well as a very short movie in 2019) but until recently I had only ever seen the original. With the recent release of ‘Jur…

tokyofox.net

They must have gone to some of them!

Someone might have approached them there. So many ways to approach a doting father and a child.

Or maybe some outwardly quiet neighbor just got off his meds, and that is all that is to the whole motive.

I would explore special interests, such as dinosaurs and planes, or I would like to know if Niina attended a ballet studio (it is an own world, and not too kind), but I think it will be DNA.

 

[Incoherent]

Re: Yasuko’s cram school, Nic will have the most details on that but I can share something I found a few weeks back when looking at photos taken on the morning of the the bodies being discovered:

On the telephone pole on the right I’ve circled the advertisement for Yasuko’s school, which would have likely been ripped down very soon after the day of discovery.

It says that her school teaches Math 数学, Japanese 国語, Toddlers 幼児, and most interestingly to me it says they teach English 英語. Whether it means she only taught toddlers or older I’m unsure.

Mikio worked for an international company and took trips to the US for work so it is safe to assume he likely spoke English, but as for Yasuko I’m not sure. This could mean the possibility that she had people working with her at her school teaching different subjects, or maybe it was just her. But I did find these points very interesting.

This style of advertisement is almost identical to the Kumon cram schools we have in Japan, but I can’t say for certain it definitely was one. However, I have seen many of those advertisements around me and they’re very similar.

Also, as the discussion is currently about location you can see the houses across the river that look down upon the Miyazawa house in this photo.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

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.

RSBM: the TMPD is one of, if not the largest police force on earth. That’s 280k+ personnel across 24 years. They have never broken down the figure or explained whether it includes canteen workers and janitors. Nonetheless, it’s what they’ve said. So, are they lying?

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.

No glaring issues in the US? UK? Spain? These are nations where I have lived so can vouch. Either way, we could cherry pick police failings across the map all day — so what? Because glaring issues have happened in the past = the TMPD have dropped glaring clangers here in the Miyazawa case? Is that your implication? If so, I would be keen to see some evidence of that beyond this case simply being unsolved. Beyond that, I’m not sure I see where you’re going with these points. Again, WS is meant to be law enforcement-friendly.

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.

I don’t think it’s a question of bothering. It’s a question of being politically able to. That’s my own opinion.

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 disagree it would be any more or less ‘believable’ or ‘perplexing’ or ‘weird.’ I have defended the *possibility* of this theory a million times here. There has yet to be one tangible point raised against it beyond simply “I don’t buy it/ it’s not likely.” Well, that’s your view, which I respect but do not share. That’s all I have to say on it.

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 is not the *prevailing theory*. It does not prevail.

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.

If the TMPD are not able or not “bothered” to look abroad for the killer then it doesn’t matter how many personnel work this case, does it? If that is the case, then there would be nothing surreal about it. All JMO.

One final point which is not a matter an opinion but fact: it’s been brought to my attention that there is the assertion in this thread that the TMPD have investigated but discarded the possibility of the killer being the son of a USAF military man. This is either a lie or a misunderstanding. If it is not, I would respectfully ask for evidence of that to be posted.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

I am not sure he could take a taxi. Don’t you think he’d smell? Even if he took a bath.

The TMPD investigated all taxi ranks. They got nothing. And to dispute the idea that a taxi driver would pick up a suspicious fare and *not* report it due to laziness or the killer hiding his injured hand or whatever; it was a taxi driver who approached them very shortly after the murders with an account of three dodgy men, one of which was supposedly bleeding. (It was not blood in the end).

 

[FacelessPodcast]

Thank you!

Now the top photo. Is the house in the right lower corner the “house across the street”? It is incredibly close. I understand that the photo is taken at an angle, but it is still very close. Was there a paved road between them? It looks like grass on the sides and some kind of covering between houses. Not even sure if it is asphalt.

Yes, there is or was a narrow road between. That's how cars came in and out. Obviously, the house opposite is long gone but when you're there in person, you can kind of make out the traces of it. You're right in that it was very close. The neighbours heard nothing, were fingerprinted, and I can tell you that detectives had zero concerns about them. So, if they were involved somehow, they pulled off the perfect crime. As it happens, I have the name of this man, the neighbour, but, as I understand it, he wishes to be left out of any and all investigation. I leave him to his peace.

I understand that the photo is taken on the morning of the day when the bodies were found? In front of the house I see a policeman in uniform, another man in dark holding something long and another person in something lighter, tan-colored. And there is a man behind the house. Is he a policeman? He looks slightly out of place.

Are you referring to the man in the middle? That's either Chief Tsuchita or one of his cohorts. He will have been wearing an armband signifying his status as Inspector.

Edit to clarify: There are two chiefs I've mentioned in this case. One is the aforementioned Tsuchita. He led the investigation for years as head of Seijo, the local PD. But shortly after the bodies were discovered, it was the Chief of Police himself who came down from his ivory tower to brand the case heinous and demand a result.

 

[BatataPoha]

Re: Yasuko’s cram school, Nic will have the most details on that but I can share something I found a few weeks back when looking at photos taken on the morning of the the bodies being discovered:
View attachment 520605
On the telephone pole on the right I’ve circled the advertisement for Yasuko’s school, which would have likely been ripped down very soon after the day of discovery.

It says that her school teaches Math 数学, Japanese 国語, Toddlers 幼児, and most interestingly to me it says they teach English 英語. Whether it means she only taught toddlers or older I’m unsure.

Mikio worked for an international company and took trips to the US for work so it is safe to assume he likely spoke English, but as for Yasuko I’m not sure. This could mean the possibility that she had people working with her at her school teaching different subjects, or maybe it was just her. But I did find these points very interesting.

This style of advertisement is almost identical to the Kumon cram schools we have in Japan, but I can’t say for certain it definitely was one. However, I have seen many of those advertisements around me and they’re very similar.

Also, as the discussion is currently about location you can see the houses across the river that look down upon the Miyazawa house in this photo.

Beautiful work Incoherent.

Is it known whether Mikio is the one who took the English classes as a side job or something?

I ask this coz Mikio works in an international company, so if he was also into some kinda career counselling or something of that sort, he could have been in contact with a lot of folks in the killer’s age group.

Would the police be able to identify them all if there was no physical evidence? I am unsure of it.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

Beautiful work Incoherent.

Is it known whether Mikio is the one who took the English classes as a side job or something?

I ask this coz Mikio works in an international company, so if he was also into some kinda career counselling or something of that sort, he could have been in contact with a lot of folks in the killer’s age group.

Would the police be able to identify them all if there was no physical evidence? I am unsure of it.

You mean like some kind of mentor for younger people embarking on their careers? Anything is possible but we have nothing to support the idea. Also, I have no idea if that sort of thing was prevalent in Tokyo in 2000. As for him helping out with the English, no idea. I would imagine not seeing as he was a salaryman and he also spent time working with the local theatre group in his free time. He also did animation, (Inspector Gadget anime, etc). Again, it's possible, but we don't know. We do know that An and her family lived in England for several years. The cram school was run from their house, not the Miyazawa household. We could similarly imagine that An helped out. There is also the possibility that Yasuko worked with individuals that had nothing to do with the family in the context of her cram school...

As for Mikio, he was basically a designer, an artist. There are lots of conflicting accounts about his conduct at work. Lots of respect for his output but some suggestion he may not have been the easiest to work with.

I can tell you that there are still people he directly worked with that are still present at Interbrand today. I spent quite a while talking with the head of the Tokyo HQ, really nice guy, and he lobbied for them to talk with me but in the end, they said no. He did relate what we already knew, though; that the TMPD interviewed employees extensively. I'm assuming they would have been looking at their hands, their fingers. Any kind of work difficulty or dispute or arguments would have been eyeballed, one imagines.

 

[Incoherent]

To further add to my previous post, here is a picture I took when watching an interview with Ann Irie in the Miyazawa house:

The circled Japanese above says Kumon クーモン and the clock is also branded Kumon in English. If you look at these materials, which I believe were actually Rei and Niina’s, they look like they were likely materials used for teaching how to tell the time to children.

Thus I suspect the franchise school that Yasuko had was a Kumon school, and it is likely she did have someone else working with her to teach other subjects.

 

[BatataPoha]

Again, it's possible, but we don't know. We do know that An and her family lived in England for several years. The cram school was run from their house, not the Miyazawa household.

I might be misremembering but wasn’t the fact they came back from the UK the reason the cram school had to be shifted back to the Miyazawa house? I remember there was some sort of friction from them coming back but maybe I am mixing things up.

You are right that Ann would seem like the more probable candidate here.

 

[Incoherent]

Beautiful work Incoherent.

Is it known whether Mikio is the one who took the English classes as a side job or something?

I ask this coz Mikio works in an international company, so if he was also into some kinda career counselling or something of that sort, he could have been in contact with a lot of folks in the killer’s age group.

Would the police be able to identify them all if there was no physical evidence? I am unsure of it.

I don’t doubt Mikio did help in some way or another with Yasuko’s school, as meticulous as he was perhaps finances? But as Nic mentioned he was a salaryman at an international company. The poor man was checking work emails on a Saturday night during the new year holiday before he and his family were murdered. The life of a salaryman in Japan isn’t an envious one, so I would say he was likely far too busy to do anything other than odd little things for his wife’s school rather than anything major. JMO here.

 

[Janitor101]

View attachment 520563
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Keishicho Metro Tokyo

Why is it that with so many windows at his disposal, he chose the smallest and most difficult window as his mode of entry.?

 

[marv hucker]

The sanitary pad aspect is baffling to me. I had seen similar used for wound care in nursing school where they were called ABD pads. My husband is a physician and I can't imagine (well until now, anyway) either of us hunting down a pad when there is blood. A kitchen towel would be a go-to and after that, we'd get something out of the huge box of "surgical" supplies that we have (dressings, gauze, needles, stitches, etc). Growing up, my dad who was a family practice doctor also had a tote filled with the same sort of supplies.

It seems like the knowledge of using a tampon for GSW or other penetrating trauma is much more commonplace. I admit that during peak allergy season I have stuffed them up my nose (as some do for nosebleeds). Either he'd learned about pads being used this way in a similar manner, or he's pretty resourceful when it comes to rummaging through an unfamiliar bathroom while looking for something to staunch significant bleeding. Most people would go for towels, imo. It's just such an odd little piece of this gigantic puzzle that it's hard to put aside.

It’s odd but that doesn’t mean it’s a telling detail worth getting hung up on. (I feel the same way about a few details in this case - the clothes, the sand… could all be absolutely random chance, of absolutely no use in identifying the murderwr).