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

[Janitor101]

There was an update on this front which, I'm pretty sure, came in a subsequent discussion with the Chief. It's not been very clear but basically, I've spoken to him many times -- on several occasions officially which were recorded and on the record for the podcast. And then, after that, we became friends. That stuff is mostly off the record, of course. But it was on the latter side where I learned that the CCTV footage did exist and for many years thought to be a good lead on the killer. Then, around 2022 or so, the man in the video was finally identified, located, and eliminated from the investigation through fingerprinting. It was simply a guy who had the bad luck to have bought the same knife as the killer in the days leading up to the murders. The Chief wouldn't get into exactly *how* they found him or why it took 22 years for that CCTV to prove fruitful.

I've obviously spent many, many hours pondering this / discussing this. Ultimately, I think the thing that makes the most sense is politics. That's a rabbit hole where we could speculate on everything from North Korea to the US being its largest trading partner (by trade balance according to World Bank). But if we accept the premise the killer might've been a US citizen, living in Japan via a USAF family, then we'd ultimately be talking about Japan putting to death an American. I don't have the info to hand but we're talking about a very short list, let alone one stationed at a USAF base. Now, I don't say this is exactly what is happening, nor do I say I have any concrete reason to think it. I just don't have a better premise in its place. I'm welcome to ideas. As to why the TMPD wouldn't pursue an international angle--considering they went to China on the mere possibility the knife was wrapped in the vein of Chinese fish factory workers, considering they went to Korea on the possibility the shoes were sold in Korea... I just can't make much sense of that. Perhaps they have information I do not. But from the many, many hours of discussion I had, it would've been very easy to say 'there are no good reasons for looking into the US, I can't tell you why.' That never came up. Not a single solid point made against the theory, or the sand, or even Edwards AFB.

There's also a lot of precedent of the US politely telling nations to get stuffed. The death of Harry Dunn recently showcased this and the UK is a friendly nation, too... If you throw into the mix a possible death sentence and Japan's arguably inhumane death row system, I'm sure there'd be ample cause for such a request to be turned down. And that's ignoring whether or not a military court would come into the mix. I'm not a JAG, I have no idea about the process but it would possibly fall down on one of two sides here for the TMPD:

1) It's an eternal mystery, we tried everything we could.

2) We know who he is and, for diplomatic reasons, we can't get him.

I can tell you the ensuing scandal would be massive. Again, I'm just riffing here. But assuming all these notes form a melody, that's lose-lose for a lot of people except Setsuko Miyazawa. And, frankly, she's pretty much the only person in this whole storm I care about.

I don't understand why the TMPD would be so dismissive in terms of the contents of the killer's hip bag. What earthly reason would they have to discount ANY potential evidence recovered from the perp's personal belongings.

Were the fingerprints of the killer matched against employees, soldiers, etc. from any of the military bases or was any solid reason ever given as to why they didn't pursue this avenue of investigation?

What have they got to lose?

 

[FacelessPodcast]

I don't understand why the TMPD would be so dismissive in terms of the contents of the killer's hip bag. What earthly reason would they have to discount ANY potential evidence recovered from the perp's personal belongings.

As I say in this post above, political consideration would be an earthly reason. As @cenazoic said:

Agreed re: politics. Particularly in the 90s, tensions were high between Japanese citizens and military bases, primarily because of crimes committed by Americans (still true today).

I agree that the US would be unlikely to turn over a teenager/military dependent to a foreign government, especially with the death penalty on the table. But also, politics; admitting a dependent committed 4 brutal murders would be absolutely incendiary.

Or if this is not the reason, then I'm still waiting to hear one other possible one. 2+ years in this thread and outside of it, I'm yet to hear one. The conversations I've had in Japan re: Yokota have all gone the same way: the TMPD would never be able to get into Yokota. That includes conversations with locals as well as authors and journalists.

Now we could imagine they might have secret evidence discounting the USAF son theory. When I directly asked if there was one single thing contradicting the theory, I was met with silence. All other questions, except for the sand where there was cageyness, were given full and in-depth answers. Nothing else was dodged. Nothing. I think it would be more likely to have been told: we discount this theory based on our findings but I am not at liberty to disclose them. If good reason to pass on this premise emerges, my opinion will change accordingly--opinions must change in-line with the evidence. Until such a time, it remains a possibility.

Were the fingerprints of the killer matched against employees, soldiers, etc. from any of the military bases or was any solid reason ever given as to why they didn't pursue this avenue of investigation?

What have they got to lose?

As above. But no, employees and airmen at Yokota (or any other US airbase) were never fingerprinted.

 

[SteveL]

I’ve asked this many times. Tennis never gets mentioned—why?

As mentioned, I recently listened to Faceless a third time, hoping to uncover some nuggets I may have missed. Another member I deeply respect suggested I go through the old threads here for the same purpose. In doing so, it did bring out some possible insight.

I was on my high school tennis team (GO MUSTANGS!). For your racquet, you needed grip tape around the wood handle. Sweat would make it slippery, so you had to apply it. It made a huge difference. Did the killer possibly realize the wood handle of the knife would get wet and slippery, hence the use of the handkerchief for gripping purposes, even if never having killed before?

For your racquet head, you needed racquet head protection tape. There were 2 popular kinds, a soft kind, and an abrasive type. As I was a temperamental player, prone to throwing a racquet or 2, my coach suggested I get the abrasive kind. He said the abrasive tape would not only protect my racquet head, but the abrasive part would slow down/stop movement if I threw it. Was this logic suggested to other temperamental players? I'm not sure if that was true enough to justify the extra $1, but it sold me. The tape is VERY similar in texture to skateboard grip tape. I wonder if this may explain the grip tape that may have been found in the killers bag?

The felt from new tennis balls pick up all sorts of things. Leaves especially. Also, I could totally see a tennis ball picking up bird droppings on the ground, sand, etc. When you have fresh balls, you're always picking off things from the ground, when not playing on a super maintained court. Could this explain some of the contents of the hip bag?

The hip bag may be a stretch. But, when practicing, many players use some kind of hip pouch, bag, etc. to hold excess balls. If you're practicing, you're typically going over a specific skill. You don't want to be constantly stopping to scoop up balls. While the killer's hip bag is not one I've typically seen used for this purpose, it could suffice.

My high school team was blessed with 16 practice courts. However, many schools may only have a few. As such, they will typically meet for practice at public courts. Could this possibly explain the killer's connection to Setagaya park? Also, did he possibly play at courts in Miura, explaining that possible sand?

 

[Cryptic]

I don't know much about Japanese culture; however, if I understand correctly, most families get together during the New Year's celebration?

That is an interesting point.

As a side note, Asian countries have an alternate New Years celebration based on the lunar cycle. So, your good question may have two components:

A. Is New Years largely reserved for family time in Japanese culture?
B. Which New Years (western or Asian) is the "big one" in Japan?

 

[Cryptic]

It may be going back to the 1500es, and even more. They can’t say that the mother is from the Mediterranean, they can only say that the haplogroup is more prevalent in the Med. It doesn’t rule any other place in the world.

In regards to meditteranean Europeans in Asia....

The British and French used to have a large colonial presence in Asia. This colonial prsence was staffed by Europeans ranging from "supply clerk" to "Governor Viceroy" and from "supply clerk" to "doctor".

Anyways, when the French and British ran out people willing to take lower level colonial positions in Asia, they routinely contracted out to Spaniards, Italians, Croats and Greeks for positions that local Asians were not fully trusted in.

A good example is Mother Theresa: Albanian from the med (well, Adriatic). British government subsidizes her group of teaching nuns to set up in India as they wanted a good school for the children of senior British officials, businessmen and select pro British Indians. MT then experience her famous "Call with in a call..."

So, maybe perpetrator is Chinese from Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam etc.? 3-5 generations ago, somebody on their mother's side had an torrid affair with a handsome Croat pipefitter from the colonial naval base? The perpetrator is 1/8 to 1/32 European- but you really cant tell that by looking at him?

 

[Incoherent]

That is an interesting point.

As a side note, Asian countries have an alternate New Years celebration based on the lunar cycle. So, your good question may have two components:

A. Is New Years largely reserved for family time in Japanese culture?
B. Which New Years (western or Asian) is the "big one" in Japan?

Lunar NY is not celebrated (as a holiday) in Japan and doesn’t have holiday time either, the new year here falls on Jan 1st. It is purely a family affair and the biggest of the year. It is the one time you can essentially guarantee families will all be together and offices and workplaces across the country are closed.
The lead up is always incredibly busy and there is a lot to do. If you have a family you’re expected to pitch in, even if you’re younger. For example, Rei and Niina would be expected to help clean the house even at their young age.

Of course there are always exceptions as with anything, but if we were to generalise here on the norm - yes, a teenage boy missing overnight from Dec 30-31 would be noticed and very weird.

Just to add that although Japanese NY does fall on Jan 1st and the days before and after it isn’t a “western” new year, it is still Japanese.