I read about the Japanese post offices’ work before the New Year. They do hire seasonal workers, including students, for the season. I think that the age cutoff point might be 16, but not sure as it was a while ago that I checked.
By the same token, New Year seems to drive the market in Japan, definitely more so than Christmas, although I was left with the feeling that at the whole end of December, shopping is active in the country.
Mail notwithstanding, is there a chance that hiring additional temporary workers would be typical for other places in the end of December? This could be the time to apply for temporary work for college students or higher schoolkids, too? The schools close for the NY.
Here:
https://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/schools/q4.html
The answer is, school break is from December 26 to January 6th.
Now, from what I understand, schoolkids don’t usually work (because parents supply with the money), but college kids do, including international ones with student visas. 67% do now.
And, Japan hires temp workers around the New Year, especially around hospitality, retail, tourism, shrines and temples, and winter resorts.
So, now per AI “ “In Japan, the general minimum age to work is 15, but they must have completed their first March 31st after turning 15. However, even younger children (13 and 14) can work in non-industrial jobs with special permission from the government. For adults, the minimum age is generally 18, and some visas, like the working holiday visa, have a minimum age of 18”.
International college students have to apply for work permit, but usually, it is up to 28 hours/week that they can work.
So I still think that the person is not in a 40-year-old group. JMO. My guess is, his age group is 15-22, and in 2000 he was strong and lean. I have no idea about his ethnicity but he “fits in” by looks and there is nothing special about him either way (neither “cute” nor, as some witnesses described, “ugly”. I assume that because of the winter he looked rather pale as in “not tanned” way and JMO, had slight bags/puffs under the eyes, but it is my fantasy).
My question is, has the police looked through the group of temporary workers, potentially high schoolers or college students that were probably hired in the Setagaya area during December 26-January 6th? This is the group that might be movable, have the reason to disappear after January 6th (just move to another island in Japan or leave the country if they were college students or had temporary holiday work visa).
If the murderer was from that group, he could have chosen the hiring place because his grandparents lived nearby, for example. So, he had the place to stay. (Or, think of that college across the park.) The person was not homeless or vagrant.
Sometimes I wonder if “comfort food” indicates “a grandmother” rather than a mother (grand mom used to get a kid for the holidays and just repeats the same meal plan with the grown kid).
In short, the killer had a perfectly legal reason to be in the neighborhood that night (“working”) but knew that he would move away soon because the work was temporary, and did not plan to ever apply in Setagaya again.
In short, the person definitely has some connection to Japan and can be ethnically Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Eurasian or a mix but probably Asian more than 50%. Pure Eurasians are considered attractive everywhere, and he flew under the radars, so, must look average. His grandparents or close relatives lived in the neighborhood. He had visited them many times so he speaks Japanese well (or has some bilingualism issues but not noticeable on the street). He probably has more problems with reading/writing in Japanese. It is not that difficult to raise a bilingual kid in any part of the world; in my mother tongue, the commas would be a giveaway, so I assume that in Japanese, too, the problem would be with some written part. But, he did speak Japanese well in 2000. And, he was either a student or applied as a temporary worker around NY or both but lives somewhere else now - can be US because of the sand or can be annywhere else. I always think of the sand being put into squishy toys, too, before stim-toys became “in”. But one of the reasons he never popped up on the radar is that he simply lives in another part of the country or he is not visiting his grandma or never reapplied for the seasonal job in the country.
Is that a possibility?
