was a 31-year-old
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese office clerk who was
robbed
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
and
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
ed in
Aichi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...
on the night of 24 August 2007 by three men who became acquainted through an underground
message board
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
.
Because the three men met on an underground website, the case is frequently called the in Japan, "
dark site" being the Japanese term for underground websites. Despite Japan's
death penalty
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 ...
not normally being used in cases involving a single murder, Isogai's mother launched a
petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication.
In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...
to have the three killers face the death penalty;
one was sentenced to death on 18 March 2009,
while the other two were sentenced to
life in prison
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
on 13 April 2011.
Background
On 17 August 2007, , a 40-year-old jobless man living in a
van
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
,
[Alt URL]
/ref> posted a message to seek partners in crime on a cellphone website used for exchanging shady information.[ ] His message, implying robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
, was read and answered by , and . Kanda was a 36-year-old ''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 ...
'' salesman[Alt URL]
/ref> from Takasaki
is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 372,369 in 167,345 households, and a population density of 810 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Takasaki is famous as the hometown of th ...
, Gunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...
. Hori was a 32-year-old unemployed darts
Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...
player who was under a heavy debt amounting to 4 million yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...
. Hondō was a 29-year-old jobless man[Alt URL]
/ref> who had difficulty paying his rent.[ Available online a]
Fumiko Isogai's website. All of them were desperate for cash.
After exchanging several emails, the four men met face-to-face on 21 August to discuss how they would be able to get money with ease. Hori suggested robbing a wealthy pachinko
is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...
player whom he knew, and the other three agreed. They tried in vain to rob him later that same day. On the night of 23 August, Kawagishi and Hondō broke into a plumber's office in Nagakute
is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 61,503 in 24,352 households, and a population density of 2,854 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Nagakute is a member of the World Health Organi ...
, where Kawagishi ran away in fright, leaving Hondō behind. With too little money to go home, Hondō surrendered to the police and was arrested for trespassing
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels, and trespass to land.
Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, ...
and attempted theft
Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...
.
On the afternoon of 24 August, Kawagishi, Kanda and Hori met to draft another plot at the parking lot of a video rental
A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms a ...
shop in Midori
Midori (みどり, ミドリ, , , ) is the Japanese word for "green" and may refer to:
Places
* Midori, Gunma
* Midori-ku, Chiba
* Midori-ku, Nagoya
* Midori-ku, Sagamihara
* Midori-ku, Saitama
* Midori-ku, Yokohama
People Given name
* Mi ...
, Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...
. Kanda suggested that they kidnap
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
and rob a woman walking on a street and kill her to prevent their robbery from being detected. Hori and Kawagishi agreed to his proposal.
Murder
Inside Kawagishi's van, the three men searched for a woman walking alone beginning around 7:00 p.m. until they saw Rie Isogai walking home on a dark street in the Jiyūgaoka neighborhood of Chikusa
is one of the 16 wards of the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 October 2019, the ward had an estimated population of 165,863 and a population density of 9,123 persons per km². The total area was 18.18 km².
Geography
...
, Nagoya around 10:00 p.m.[Alt URL]
/ref> Hori got out of the van and approached her, pretending to be asking for directions, and forced her into the van. Kanda and Hori put handcuffs
Handcuffs are Physical restraint, restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a Link chain, chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm whi ...
on Isogai, threatened her with knives, and demanded her money and ATM card
An ATM card is a payment card or dedicated payment card issued by a financial institution (i.e. a bank) which enables a customer to access their financial accounts via its and others' automated teller machines (ATMs) and to make approved point of ...
s while Kawagishi drove his van to a lonely parking lot in Aisai
is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 61,320 in 23,451 households, and a population density of 919 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Aisai is a member of the World Health Organizat ...
, a suburban city of Nagoya. At the parking lot, Hori pulled a knife on Isogai and extracted her PIN
A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together.
Pin or PIN may also refer to:
Computers and technology
* Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system
** PIN pad, a PIN entry device
* PIN, a former Dutch de ...
for ATM cards.
Just after midnight, Kawagishi tried to rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
Isogai, though he failed in his attempt because Kanda and Hori stopped him. His sudden attempt to rape her frightened Isogai so much that she tried to get out of the van, which made the three decide to kill her immediately. Despite her desperate pleas for her life, at about 1:00 a.m., Kanda wrapped packing tape
Box-sealing tape, parcel tape or packing tape is a pressure-sensitive tape used for closing or sealing corrugated fiberboard boxes. It consists of a pressure-sensitive adhesive coated onto a backing material which is usually a polypropylene or ...
around her head to smother
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can ...
her and, seeing her still alive, bludgeoned her head with a hammer approximately thirty times, while Hori and Kawagishi choked her with a rope.
After killing her, the three men dumped the victim's body in a forest in Mizunami
Nakasendō.html"_;"title="Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō">Hosokute-juku_on_the_ Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō_">Nakasendō.html"_;"title="Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō">Hosokute-juku_on_the_Nakasendō_
_is_a_Cities_of_Japan">city_located_in_ ...
, Gifu Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...
at around 4:00 a.m., and tried to withdraw money from her bank account at an ATM in a convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
, only to find that she had told them the wrong PIN. Disappointed after failing to withdraw money, they shared 62,000 yen which they had found in the victim's handbag, and parted, promising that they would rob and kill women at random near Nagoya Station
is a major railway station in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Japan. It is one of the world's largest train stations by floor area (410,000 m2), and houses the headquarters of the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). Much of this space is located in ...
in the evening that day.[Alt URL]
/ref>
Arrest
On 25 August 2007, Kawagishi telephoned the police to confess to the crime around 13:00. As for the reason he surrendered to the police, he explained that he was scared of receiving capital punishment. The Japanese penal code
The Penal Code (刑法 ''Keihō'') of Japan was passed in 1907 as Law No. 45. It is one of six Codes that form the foundation of modern Japanese law. The penal code is also called “ordinary criminal law” or “general criminal law” as it r ...
provides that punishment shall be extenuated if a criminal surrenders before being identified as a suspect by the authorities.
Finding the victim's body abandoned as he described, the police arrested Kawagishi and his crime partners on 26 August. Fumiko Isogai, the victim's mother and only family member, identified the body on the same day of their arrest.[ ] The three were charged with murder for robbery, kidnapping for profit, confinement
Confinement may refer to
* With respect to humans:
** An old-fashioned or archaic synonym for childbirth
** Postpartum confinement (or postnatal confinement), a system of recovery after childbirth, involving rest and special foods
** Civil confi ...
and abandonment of a corpse
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stu ...
by 5 October 2007.[ ] Kawagishi was additionally charged with attempted rape at the scene of robbery.
Petition for death penalty
Capital punishment is a legal penalty for murder in Japan, but the general sentencing guideline means that death sentences are not usually passed for a single murder. Fumiko Isogai, whose only child was killed in this crime, launched a campaign to call for the death penalty for the three murderers in September 2007.[ ] Within ten days, her petition was signed by 100,000 citizens. She presented her petition for the death penalty with some 150,000 signatures to the District Public Prosecutors' Office of Nagoya on 23 October 2007. About 318,000 citizens had signed her petition by December 2008. Although single murderers rarely face a death sentence in Japan, Takeshi Tsuchimoto
Takeshi ( in hiragana or in katakana) is a masculine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
*武, "warrior"
*毅, "strong"
*猛, "fierce"
*健, "healthy"
*剛, "sturdy"
*彪, "spotted"
*威, "intimidate"
*壮, "robust"
*丈, "length"
*雄, "mascu ...
, a criminal law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law i ...
scholar at Hakuoh University
is a private university in city of Oyama in Tochigi, Japan. The name Hakuoh, means 'white seagull', and the motto ''Plus ultra'', or 'Further beyond'.
History
Hakuoh University was founded by lifelong educator Dr. Kazuyoshi Kamioka in 1986 a ...
and former prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
of the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office, expected that the recent trend toward stricter punishments, backed by the growing public support for capital punishment, would encourage the court to sentence Kanda and Hori to death. Kawagishi's and Kanda's fathers also asked the court to sentence their sons to death.
Trial
The trial started at the District Court of Nagoya on 25 September 2008. All the defendants admitted to robbing and murdering Rie Isogai at the first session. They agreed that the brutality escalated as they tried to call each other's earlier boasts. Kanda told Kawagishi at their first meeting that he had committed homicide twice, and Hori wrote in an email to Kawagishi that he had just been released from prison, both of which turned out to be lies each of them told to make himself look bigger than the others. The defense attorneys argued that they should not be punished by death because the crime was carried out in an atmosphere that disabled the bluffing men from saying no to each other, whatever atrocious act might be proposed, and because Isogai's death was accidental and could not be said to be so vicious as to result in capital punishment, given the sentences handed down in similar cases in the past.
The defendants disputed over who among them was the principal culprit and when they agreed to kill the victim. Kawagishi insisted that Kanda was the principal and that he had not known the plan to kill the woman until he saw the other two begin to smother her. Hori also claimed that Kanda led the crime and that he had not thought of murdering the victim until Kanda suggested choking her at the last minute. Kanda said that they had achieved a consensus on murder before they began to search for a woman to rob of money but that it had not been serious until Kawagishi's attempt to rape her made Isogai change her attitude, claiming that Hori, who allegedly hit the victim on the head with a hammer before Kanda did, was the principal.
During trial sessions, the defendants often got into quarrels with each other. Kanda made fun of Rie Isogai and called her a liar in his blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
, which he started in order to reveal what he claims to be the true story of this case. Kawagishi said that the victim was just unlucky. Seeing the defendants far from apologetic, Fumiko Isogai said that their words were unbearable and added, "It might be better than superficial apologies".
The prosecutors demanded capital punishment for all the defendants in the closing argument
A closing argument, summation, or summing up is the concluding statement of each party's counsel reiterating the important arguments for the trier of fact, often the jury, in a court case. A closing argument occurs after the presentation of eviden ...
on 20 January 2009. They insisted that the court sentence Kawagishi to death despite his voluntary surrender because he was unrepentant and the police would have been able to arrest the three without his surrender.
Judgement
On 18 March 2009, the district court found the defendants guilty of all the charges. It sentenced Kanda and Hori to death. Judge Hiroko Kondō determined in the ruling that Kanda had played a leading role in the murder. She said that their motives for the crime left no room for leniency
Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French ''merci'', from Medieval Latin ''merced-'', ''merces'', from Latin, "price paid, wages", from ''merc-'', ''merxi'' "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, relig ...
and that capital punishment was the only option, even after considering that there was only one victim, because their criminal acts were extremely merciless and heinous[ ] and deemed to be a serious threat to society. Kawagishi received a life sentence because the court judged that he had provided the police with useful information that led to the arrest of Kanda and Hori.
Major national newspapers published editorials in support of Kondō's unorthodox judgment on the premise that capital punishment should be retained. The ''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 ...
'' and the ''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 ...
'' claimed in their editorials that most people would be supportive of this judgment. The '' Nikkei'' commented that the judgment was reasonable. The ''Sankei Shimbun
The (short for ) is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the It has the seventh-highest circulation for regional newspapers in Japan. Among Japanese newspapers, the circulation is second only to ''Yomiuri Shimbun'', Seikyo Shimbun, ''Asah ...
'' aggressively evaluated the judgment as "a natural and down-to-earth judgment of great significance". The ''Tokyo Shimbun
''The Tokyo Shimbun'' (東京新聞, ''Tōkyō Shinbun'', literally ''Tokyo Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published by The Chunichi Shimbun Company. The group publishes newspapers under the brand name of The Tokyo Shimbun in the Tokyo Metr ...
'' expressed the view that capital punishment was inevitable when they thought how brutal the murder was and what the victim's family felt of it. They also noted, however, that it would be difficult for citizen judges to determine whether the death penalty would be appropriate in this kind of case under the lay judge system, which was started in May 2009. Hiroshi Itakura
is a common masculine Japanese given name. It can also be transliterated as Hirosi.
Possible writings
Hiroshi can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:
*浩, "meaning"
*汎
*弘,
*宏,
*寛,
*洋,
*博,
*博一,
*博司,
...
, a criminal law scholar at Nihon University
, abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...
said that this decision could be a new criterion for capital punishment under the lay judge system.
Four hours after he received the death penalty, Hori told journalists that he felt the words "capital punishment" were "heavy", though he had been prepared for it. Kawagishi said, "I'm glad my surrender was counted and I didn't get a death sentence."
The victim's mother and the victim's boyfriend expressed their disappointment at the judgment which saved Kawagishi's life.
Appeal
The three defendants also appealed to the High Court of Nagoya to have their sentences reduced. However, Kanda withdrew his own appeal without his attorney's consent to have his death sentence finalized on 13 April 2009. The prosecutors lodged an appeal against the district court's decision for Kawagishi on 27 March 2009.
On 13 April 2011 the Nagoya High Court affirmed Kawagishi's life sentence and reduced Hori's death sentence to life, ruling that they were both less responsible than Kanda. The prosecution appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, which affirmed the two life sentences, but Hori was later sentenced to death for killing a married couple in 1998.
Execution
Tsukasa Kanda was executed at the Nagoya Detention House on 25 June 2015.
See also
*Capital punishment in Japan
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Japan. It is applied in practice only for aggravated murder, although it is also a legal penalty for certain crimes against the state, such as treason and military insubordination, as well as kidnapping r ...
*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 ...
References
*
*
External links
Rie Isogai Memorial Website
Tsukasa Kanda's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isogai, Rie
Murder in Japan
2007 murders in Japan
History of Aichi Prefecture
Violence against women in Japan
Victims of serial killers