was a Japanese newspaper deliveryman who
kidnapped
Kidnapped may refer to:
* subject to the crime of kidnapping
Literature
* ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
* ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Ca ...
,
sexually assaulted
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
and
murdered
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
7-year-old in
Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
,
Nara Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...
, on November 17, 2004. Kobayashi, an
ex-convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...
and
pedophile
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...
with a record as a prolific
sex offender
A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crime ...
, was
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
for the murder of Ariyama and was
executed by hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...
at
Osaka Detention House
is a correctional facility in Miyakojima-ku, Osaka. A part of the penal system of Japan, it is operated by the Ministry of Justice.
One of Japan's seven execution chambers is in this facility.
Notable prisoners
* Kaoru Kobayashi (hanged 21 ...
on February 21, 2013.
Ariyama's murder caused a surge in the
moral panic
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usua ...
against ''
otaku
is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...
'' culture in Japan.
Early life
Kaoru Kobayashi was born on November 30, 1968, in the
Sumiyoshi-ku ward of
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
,
Osaka Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture ...
. He worked as a
paperboy
A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th ...
since his childhood as his family was poor, and his mother died in 1978. In 1989, Kobayashi was convicted of
sexually assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
ing eight children, receiving a
suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...
of two years imprisonment. In October 1991, Kobayashi
attempted to kill a five-year-old girl and was sentenced to three years in prison, for which he was
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
d on November 9, 1995, and officially released on July 23, 1996.
Kobayashi had worked at a
newsstand for ''
Asahi Shimbun
is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...
'' in Tomio, a neighborhood in the west-side of
Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
,
Nara Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...
, between March and July 2000. At the time of the murder, he was employed as a newspaper deliveryman for ''
Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by
In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...
'' in the
Ikoma District of Nara Prefecture, adjacent to Tomio.
Kidnapping and murder
On November 17, 2004, Kobayashi
kidnapped
Kidnapped may refer to:
* subject to the crime of kidnapping
Literature
* ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
* ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Ca ...
seven-year-old Kaede Ariyama at random while she travelled from Tomio North Elementary School to her home, near the west-side police station in Tomio. Using Ariyama's
cellular phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
, Kobayashi sent a photograph of the girl to her mother with the message: "I've got your daughter". Kobayashi then murdered Ariyama and dumped her body in the town of
Heguri in the Ikoma District of Nara Prefecture, which was found that night. The
autopsy
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
revealed the cause of Ariyama's death to be drowning; the water collected in her lungs was not dirty, so it was assumed that she had been drowned in a sink or bathtub. Several of her teeth were missing and
abrasions were found on her hands and feet, which were assumed to have been done by Kobayashi after her death. It also appeared that Kobayashi had undressed Ariyama before murdering her and then re-dressed her afterwards.
On December 14, 2004, Kobayashi sent an
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
from Ariyama's cellular phone to her mother's cellular phone, saying, "I'll take her baby sister next" with a photograph. He had shown off a photograph of Ariyama to a waitress and customers in a local bar, claiming to have gotten the photograph from a website.
Arrest
On December 30, 2004, Kobayashi was arrested for kidnapping after he had sent a photograph from Ariyama's cellular phone to his own, which helped speed his arrest because the local
cell phone towers logged the messages sent from the phone. Kobayashi lived in the town of
Kawai
is a musical instrument manufacturing company headquartered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. It is best known for its grand pianos, upright pianos, digital pianos, electronic keyboards and electronic synthesizers. The company was founded in Augus ...
in
Kitakatsuragi District, located in the northwest area of Nara Prefecture along with Tomio and Ikoma, and was arrested after he had finished his morning paper route distributing the news that the suspect would be arrested soon. During a search of his room, the police discovered Ariyama's cellular phone and ''
randoseru
A is a firm-sided backpack made of stitched firm leather or leather-like synthetic material, most commonly used in Japan by elementary schoolchildren. Traditionally it is given to a child upon beginning their first year of school, whereupon ...
'', a video and a magazine containing
child pornography
Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...
, and a considerable amount of girls' underwear which Kobayashi had stolen between June and December 2004.
A witness reported seeing Ariyama walking to Kobayashi's car, which suggested that they knew each other. However, Kobayashi said, "I would have kidnapped anybody."
On January 19, 2005, Kobayashi was prosecuted for kidnapping. Because he had previous sexual offenses involving girls, public attention turned to passing a law in Japan similar to
Megan's Law
Megan's Law is the name for a federal law (and informal name for subsequent state laws) in the United States requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Laws were creat ...
in the United States.
Reaction
''Mainichi Shimbun''
In the wake of the arrest, it was revealed that the manager of the newspaper delivery agency in Osaka's
Higashisumiyoshi Ward had made a report to the police that a newspaper subscription fee of
JP¥230,000 had been stolen. Afterwards, the manager discovered that the thief was Kobayashi, now working in Kawai. On November 17, 2004, the day of the kidnapping, a judge had issued an arrest warrant for Kobayashi for the
embezzlement
Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
reported by the manager. However, the manager did not inform the police of this because he was promised that the suspect would repay him for the stolen money with monthly payments. Therefore, the police were not able to arrest Kobayashi and he was free to commit his attack. As a result of this, ''Mainichi Shimbun'' announced on January 19, 2005, that it would terminate its contracts with two delivery agents in Kawai and Higashisumiyoshi Ward in Osaka on January 31.
Effect on ''otaku''
Ariyama's murder fueled an increased hostility towards ''
otaku
is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...
'' culture in Japan, which had already been the subject of a
moral panic
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usua ...
since the killing spree of
serial murderer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
Tsutomu Miyazaki
was a Japanese serial killer who murdered four young girls in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture between August 1988 and June 1989. He abducted and killed the girls, aged from 4 to 7, in his car before dismembering them and molesting their corpses. ...
in 1989. Miyazaki became known as the "Otaku Murderer" due to his strong interest in
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
and
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
s, sparking negative
stereotype
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
s of ''otaku'' leading people to become violent criminals, particularly against young girls. Kobayashi's crime was associated with ''otaku'' in Japanese society due to its similarity to Miyazaki's crimes.
Japanese journalist Akihiro Ōtani suspected that Kobayashi's crime was committed by a member of the
figure ''moe zoku'' sub-culture, which Ōtani associated with ''
lolicon
In Japanese popular culture, is a genre of fictional media in which young (or young-looking) girl characters appear in romantic or sexual contexts. The term, a portmanteau of the English phrase "Lolita complex", also refers to desire and a ...
'' even before Kobayashi's arrest. Although Kobayashi was not an ''otaku'', and did not even own any figurines, the degree of social hostility against ''otaku'' seemed to increase for a while, as suggested by increased targeting of ''otaku'' by law enforcement as possible suspects for
sex crime
Sex and the law deals with the regulation by law of human sexual activity. Sex laws vary from one place or jurisdiction to another, and have varied over time. Unlawful sexual acts are called sex crimes.
Some laws regarding sexual activity are ...
s, and by calls from persons in local governments for stricter laws controlling the depiction of eroticism in materials which cater to some ''otaku'' (e.g.
erotic manga and
erotic video games
Sexual content has been found in video games since the early days of the industry, and games featuring sexual content can be found on most platforms and can be of any video game genre.
The inclusion of sex in games has been subject to varyi ...
).
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
politician
Nobuto Hosaka
(born November 26, 1955) is a Japanese politician and the current mayor of Setagaya in Tokyo. In addition, he was a member of the House of Representatives for the Social Democratic Party until July 21, 2009.
Hosaka campaigned and won the mayo ...
criticised much of the uproar.
Trial and verdict
Kobayashi's trial began on April 18, 2005. He said: Both Miyazaki and Takuma were child murderers with histories of mental illness and sex crimes against children. For his part, Miyazaki stated, "I won't allow him to call himself 'the second Tsutomu Miyazaki' when he hasn't even undergone a psychiatric examination." Miyazaki was subsequently
executed
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
on June 17, 2008, after making this comment, possibly due to the significance of Kobayashi's case and another recent incident, the
Akihabara massacre
The was an incident of mass murder that took place on 8June 2008, in the Akihabara shopping quarter in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The perpetrator, 25-year-old of Susono, Shizuoka, drove into a crowd with a rented truck, initially killing three peo ...
.
Kobayashi's psychiatrist diagnosed him as suffering from
antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD or infrequently APD) is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of disregard of, or violation of, the rights of others as well as a difficulty sustaining long-term relationships. Lack ...
and
pedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...
, but sane enough to be responsible for his actions, believing he might have even been gnawed by a sense of guilt. Ariyama's identity had been withheld by the Japanese media when the media learned of his sex crime, but the bereaved released her name and photograph in September 2006.
On September 26, 2006, Kobayashi was sentenced to death by
hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
by the Nara district court. The
defense
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense industr ...
made an appeal on the same day, but retracted it on October 10, 2006. Kobayashi's new lawyer claimed in June 2007 that the withdrawal was invalid, which the Nara district court declined on April 21, 2008. On May 22, 2008, the
Osaka high court upheld the decision. On July 7, 2008, the
Supreme Court of Japan
The , located in Hayabusachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo, is the Supreme court, highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Constitution of Japan, Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law. It ...
upheld the decision.
Kobayashi was executed by hanging at Osaka Detention House on February 21, 2013.
See also
*
List of executions in Japan
Capital punishment is a legal penalty for murder in Japan, and is applied in cases of multiple murder or aggravated single murder. Executions in Japan are carried out by hanging, and the country has seven execution chambers, all located in major ...
*
Murder of Airi Kinoshita
was a Japanese girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered in Hiroshima on 22 November 2005. José Manuel Torres Yake, a 33-year-old Japanese Peruvian wanted for child sexual abuse in Peru, was arrested and charged with Airi's murder a week la ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayshi, Kaoru
1968 births
2013 deaths
2004 murders in Japan
Japanese murderers of children
Japanese people convicted of child sexual abuse
People from Osaka
Japanese people convicted of murder
People convicted of murder by Japan
21st-century executions by Japan
People executed by Japan by hanging
Executed Japanese people
People executed for murder
People with antisocial personality disorder
1991 crimes in Japan