was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

spree killer A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

Biography

Nagayama was born in

Abashiri is a city located in Okhotsk Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Abashiri is known as the site of the Abashiri Prison, a Meiji-era facility used for the incarceration of political prisoners. The old prison has been turned into a museum, but the cit ...

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

and grew up with divorced parents. He moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

in 1965 and, while working in Tokyo's

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

district, witnessed the Zama and Shibuya shootings. Nagayama killed four people with a handgun between October11 and November5, 1968. He robbed the last two victims of 16,420yen. He was arrested on April7, 1969. When he was arrested, he was 19years old and was regarded as a

minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barb ...

under Japanese law at the time. The

Tokyo District Court is a district court located at 1-1-4 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, 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 ...

sentenced him to death in 1979, though this was overturned by the

Tokyo High Court is a high court in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The is a special branch of Tokyo High Court. Japan has eight high courts: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sendai, Sapporo, and Takamatsu. Each court has jurisdiction over one of ...

, which imposed a sentence of

life imprisonment 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 ...

in 1981. 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 ...

reversed the high court's decision in 1983. This ruling is today considered the landmark decision for the application of the

death penalty 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 ...

. The high court on remand subsequently sentenced him to death in 1987, a decision which the Supreme Court upheld in 1990. In

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

, Nagayama wrote many novels and became a public figure. His first published work was in 1971. In 1983, he was awarded a prize for the novel . The Japanese writing community was uneasy with his success, given his status as a convicted killer. He was rejected by the Japan Writers' Association but did receive recognition in

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

, Germany in 1996. On August1, 1997, he was executed at the

Tokyo Detention Center Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

at the age of 48 by decision of Justice Minister Isao Matsuura, just 34days after the arrest of Seito Sakakibara, the 14-year-old perpetrator of the

Kobe child murders The occurred in Suma, Kobe, Japan, on March 16 and May 27, 1997. Two victims, , aged 10, and , aged 11, were murdered by a 14-year-old boy reportedly named , under the alias . The perpetrator was arrested on June28, 1997 in connection with the ...

. He made no final statement. A foundation to save poor people was established by his will.

Victims

#Masanori Nakamura (中村公紀, ''Nakamura Masanori'') #Tomejirō Katsumi (勝見留次郎, ''Katsumi Tomejirō'') #Tetsuhiko Saitō (斎藤哲彦, ''Saitō Tetsuhiko'') #Masaaki Itō (伊藤正明, ''Itō Masaaki'')

Works

* * * * * * * * *

References

External links

In Secrecy, Japan Hangs a Best-Selling Author, a Killer of 4
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', August 7, 1997
10 years after hanging, killer still offers lessons to be learned
''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'', August 1, 2007
Norio NagayamaA.K.A Serial Killer
accessed July 17, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagayama, Norio 1949 births 1997 deaths 20th-century Japanese novelists People from Hokkaido People executed by Japan by hanging 20th-century executions by Japan Executed Japanese people Japanese people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Japan Executed spree killers 1968 murders in Japan People executed for murder

Biography

Victims

Works

See also

References

External links