The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Japan and its predecessor entities ranging back to the Tokugawa shogunate (Some historical numbers may be approximate). The massacres are grouped into different time periods. Massacres have become a growing problem in contemporary Japan in recent years, with at least 110+ deaths during the 2010s.
Most notably, the 2019 Kyoto Animation arson attack claimed at least 36 lives and injured an additional 34. It is one of the deadliest massacres in Japan since the end of World War II and the deadliest building fire in Japan since the 2001 Myojo 56 building fire. It was considered "suicidal terrorism" by one criminology professor at Rissho University, as the attack was reportedly intended to be a suicide mission by the suspect. [1] In December 2021, another arson attack occurred, this time at a building in Osaka, specifically at a psychiatric clinic located on the fourth floor. It killed 25 and injured an additional 3. The suspect, who died in hospital two weeks later, is believed to have been inspired by the 2019 attack in Kyoto. [2]
Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
30 September 1571 | Siege of Mount Hiei | Inside the Enryaku-ji temple complex on Mount Hiei | Oda Nobunaga's army | 1,500-4,000 | Massacre of the Buddhist warrior monks who refused to submit to the warlord Oda Nobunaga. [3] |
1579 | Siege of Itami | Itami Castle, Settsu Province | Oda Nobunaga's army | 670 [4] | Defenders from the Itami clan and their families were killed after the capture of Itami Castle. |
5 September 1595 | The massacre of Toyotomi Hidetsugu's entire family | Kyoto | Toyotomi Hideyoshi | 39 | Hideyoshi ordered the execution of Hidetsugu's entire family, including children, wives and concubines. |
Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
12–15 April 1638 | Mass beheadings at the final days of the Shimabara revolt | Inside and around Hara Castle, Minamishimabara | Shogunate army | 37,000 | Rebels and sympathizers were beheaded by military forces. Afterwards, the Hara Castle was also burned to the ground. |
December 1696 | Yoshiwara spree killing | Yoshiwara | Sano Jirōzaemon | ? | Sano Jirōzaemon murdered dozens of prostitutes with a katana in Yoshiwara [5] |
Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 March 1919 | March 1st demonstrations | Korea under Japanese rule | Imperial Japanese Army | 7,509 | 15,849 Koreans wounded [6] |
15 April 1919 | Jeamni massacre | Hwaseong, Chōsen | Imperial Japanese Army | 29 | Killing of Korean civilians inside a church in Hwaseong |
October 1920 | Gando massacre | Jiandao | Imperial Japanese Army | 5,000+ [7] | |
July 1922 | Shinano River incident | Shinano River | Okura zaibatsu | 100+ | Documentation on death incomplete[ citation needed ][ clarification needed ] |
September 1923 | Kantō Massacre | Kantō region | Imperial Japanese Army, police and vigilantes | 6,000+ | Multiple incidents, including the Fukuda Village Incident |
21 May 1938 | Tsuyama massacre | Tsuyama | Mutsuo Toi | 31 | After cutting off electricity to his village, 21-year-old Mutsuo Toi proceeded to go on a late-night killing spree with a shotgun, a katana, and an axe before killing himself, 3 injured |
2 September 1944 | Chichijima incident | Chichijima, Ogasawara Islands | Imperial Japanese Army | 8 | Japanese soldiers killed eight American airmen on Chichi Jima, in the Bonin Islands, and cannibalized four of them. The ninth, and only one to evade capture, was future U.S. President George H. W. Bush |
July 1945 | Hanaoka incident | Ōdate | Imperial Japanese Army | 418 | 113 prisoners of war executed; 307 also died |
Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
26 January 1948 | Teigin case | Tokyo | Sadamichi Hirasawa | 12 | False verdict suspected |
15 July 1949 | Mitaka incident | Tokyo | Keisuke Takeuchi | 8 | 20 injured. False verdict suspected |
Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
30 June 1966 | Hakamada Incident | Shimizu, Shizuoka | Iwao Hakamada | 4 | False verdict suspected |
30 August 1974 | Mitsubishi bombing | Tokyo | East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front | 8 | Powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi. Eight killed, 378 injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested May 19, 1975, by Japanese authorities. |
6 November 1975 | 1975 Aki shooting | Aki, Kōchi Prefecture | Ikuya Hatakeyama | 6 | 31-year-old Ikuya Hatakeyama shoots eight of his neighbours with a 12-gauge shotgun, killing six and critically injuring two |
19 August 1980 | Shinjuku bus attack | Shinjuku, Tokyo | Maruyama Hirobumi | 6 | A mentally disturbed man Maruyama Hirobumi throws a bucket of petrol and a lit newspaper into a bus. The ensuing fire killed 6 and injured 14. [8] [9] |
9 February 1982 | Japan Air Lines Flight 350 | Haneda Airport, Tokyo | Seiji Katagiri | 24 | Flight 350 was on approach to Haneda Airport when the pilot Seiji Katagiri deliberately nose-dived the plane to crash it. The pilot was then subdued by other flight crews, yet the plane remained descending. It then crashed into Tokyo Bay. The pilot who deliberately nose-dived the plane was suffering from mental illness before the incident |
27–28 June 1994 | Matsumoto incident | Matsumoto | Aum Shinrikyo | 8 | Members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult released sarin gas near the homes of several judges who presiding over legal cases involving the cult. 500+ injured [10] |
20 March 1995 | Tokyo subway sarin attack | Tokyo | Aum Shinrikyo | 13 | 6,252 injured |
25 July 1998 | Wakayama arsenic poison case | Sonobe district of Wakayama, Wakayama | Masumi Hayashi | 4 | Four people are killed and 63 injured after eating curry laced with arsenic at a community festival in Wakayama. Masumi Hayashi, the chief suspect, has been sentenced to death and is currently appealing. [11] |
8 September 1999 | Ikebukuro massacre | Tokyo | Hiroshi Zota | 2 | 6 injured [12] [13] [14] |
29 September 1999 | Shimonoseki Station massacre | Shimonoseki | Yasuaki Uwabe | 5 | Yasuaki Uwabe, a former architect, drove a rented car into Shimonoseki Station and hit at least 7 people, two of whom died before the car got stuck. He then proceeded to stab pedestrians at random with a kitchen knife, injuring 4 and killing a further 3. Uwabe was eventually apprehended by a station worker and was arrested shortly after. Uwabe was executed in 2012. |
30 December 2000 | Setagaya family murder | Setagaya | Unknown | 4 | A Family of four are murdered at their home in suburban Tokyo by an unknown intruder, the case remains unsolved. |
8 June 2001 | Osaka school massacre | Ikeda | Mamoru Takuma | 8 | 37-year-old former janitor Mamoru Takuma entered an elementary school in Osaka, then used a kitchen knife to kill 8 students. He wounded an additional 13 other students and 2 teachers |
1 September 2001 | Myojo 56 building fire | Shinjuku | Unknown | 44 | Perpetrator never caught. |
20 June 2003 | Fukuoka family murder case | Higashi-ku, Fukuoka | Wei Wei, Yang Ning and Wang Liang | 4 | Businessman Shinjiro Matsumoto, his wife Chika and two children aged 11 and 8 are murdered in a robbery by three Chinese students who broke into their home and dumped their bodies in Hakata Bay. Two of the three - Yang Ning and Wang Liang – fled to China where they were arrested. Yang was executed and Wang sentenced to life imprisonment. The third, Wei Wei, was arrested in Japan and was held on death row until finally executed in December 2019. |
18 and 20 September 2004 | Ōmuta murders | Omuta, Fukuoka | Kitamura-gumi | 4 | Mob wife Mami Kitamura murders four people with her husband and two sons. |
19 - 23 March 2008 | Tsuchiura massacre | Tsuchiura, Ibaraki | Masahiro Kanagawa | 2 | 7 injured [15] [16] |
8 June 2008 | Akihabara massacre | Chiyoda | Tomohiro Katō | 7 | 10 injured |
1 October 2008 | Osaka movie theater fire [17] [18] | Osaka | Kazuhiro Ogawa [19] | 16 | |
12 January 2010 | 2010 Habikino shooting | Iichan bar, Habikino, Osaka Prefecture | Yasuhisa Sugiura | 4 (including the perpetrator) | |
14 March 2013 | Etajima stabbings | Etajima, Hiroshima | Chen Shuangxi | 2 | 6 Wounded |
21–22 July 2013 | Yamaguchi arson and murders | Mitake | Kosei Homi | 5 | |
17 May 2015 | Kawasaki building fire | Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture | Unknown | 11 | 11 people died and 17 were seriously injured in an arson attack on 2 buildings [20] |
26 July 2016 | Sagamihara stabbings | Sagamihara | Satoshi Uematsu | 19 | 26 injured |
6 October 2017 | Komatsu family murder | Hitachi, Ibaraki | Hirobumi Komatsu | 6 | Hirobumi Komatsu killed his wife and five children by stabbing, he then set the bodies on fire. [21] |
31 March - 1 April 2018 | Hioki murders | Hioki, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu | Tomohiro Iwakura | 5 | Tomohiro Iwakura Kills Four Members of His Family and a Neighbor by Strangulation [22] [23] |
28 May 2019 | Kawasaki stabbings | Tama ward of Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture | Ryuichi Iwasaki | 3 | 18 injured |
18 July 2019 | Kyoto Animation arson attack | Kyoto | Shinji Aoba | 36 | 33 injured [24] |
17 December 2021 | Osaka building fire | Osaka | Morio Tanimoto (suspect) | 25 | 3 injured, including suspect; arson suspected [25] [26] |
25 May 2023 | Nagano Attack | Nagano | Masanori Aoki | 4 | Attacker stabbed 2 women dead, then shot 2 responding police officers. [27] |
The Osaka school massacre was a school stabbing and mass murder that occurred in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, on 8 June 2001. Mamoru Takuma, a 37-year-old ex-convict with a history of mentally disturbed and anti-social behavior, stabbed eight students to death and seriously wounded fifteen others in a knife attack that lasted several minutes. Takuma was sentenced to death in August 2003, and executed in September 2004.
Kyoto Animation Co., Ltd., often abbreviated KyoAni, is a Japanese animation studio and light novel publisher located in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. It was founded in 1985 by husband and wife Hideaki and Yoko Hatta, who remain its president and vice-president respectively.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Japan. In practice, it is applied only for aggravated murder, but the current Penal Code and several laws list 14 capital crimes, including conspiracy to commit civil war; conspiracy with a foreign power to provoke war against Japan; murder; obstruction of the operation of railroads, ships, or airplanes resulting in the death of the victim; poisoning of the water supply resulting in the death of the victim; intentional flooding; use of a bomb; and arson of a dwelling; all resulting in the death of the victim. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and take place at one of the seven execution chambers located in major cities across the country.
Kaoru Kobayashi was a Japanese newspaper deliveryman who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered 7-year-old Kaede Ariyama in Nara, Nara Prefecture, on November 17, 2004. Kobayashi, an ex-convict and pedophile with a record as a prolific sex offender, was sentenced to death for the murder of Ariyama and was executed by hanging at Osaka Detention House on February 21, 2013. Ariyama's murder caused a surge in the moral panic against otaku culture in Japan.
The Akihabara massacre was an incident of mass murder that took place on 8 June 2008, in the Akihabara shopping quarter in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The perpetrator, 25-year-old Tomohiro Katō of Susono, Shizuoka, drove into a crowd with a rented truck, initially killing three people and injuring two; he then stabbed at least twelve people using a dagger, killing four other people and injuring eight.
Rie Isogai was a 31-year-old Japanese office clerk who was robbed and murdered in Aichi Prefecture on the night of 24 August 2007 by three men who became acquainted through an underground message board. Because the three men met on an underground website, the case is frequently called the Dark Site Murder in Japan, "dark site" being the Japanese term for underground websites. Despite Japan's death penalty not normally being used in cases involving a single murder, Isogai's mother launched a petition 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 on 13 April 2011.
The Shimonoseki Station massacre was a mass murder that occurred in Shimonoseki, Japan on 29 September 1999. Yasuaki Uwabe, a 35-year-old former architect, drove a car into Shimonoseki Station and then stabbed passers-by at random, killing five people and injuring 10 others, before being arrested at the scene. Uwabe was sentenced to death in 2002 and executed in 2012.
The Kawasaki stabbings occurred on the morning of 28 May 2019 in the Tama ward of Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, four blocks west of Noborito Station. Two people were murdered, and 18 others were injured after being stabbed at a city bus stop by 51-year-old Ryuichi Iwasaki. After carrying out the attack, Iwasaki committed suicide by stabbing himself in the neck.
The Kyoto Animation arson attack occurred at Kyoto Animation's Studio 1 building in the Fushimi ward of Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, on the morning of 18 July 2019. The arson killed 36 people, injured an additional 34, and destroyed most of the materials and computers in Studio 1. It is one of the deadliest massacres in Japan since the end of World War II, the deadliest building fire in Japan since the 2001 Myojo 56 building fire, and the first massacre ever to have occurred at a studio associated with an entertainment company, and the animation industry.
Yoshiji Kigami was a Japanese animator, director and storyboarder. He started working at Shin-Ei Animation, later became part of Animaruya and then he became affiliated with Kyoto Animation.
Naomi Ishida was a Japanese animation color designer who worked for Kyoto Animation.
The Fukuoka family murder case was a robbery-murder by Wei Wei and two other Chinese international students in the Higashi-ku ward of Fukuoka, Japan, on June 20, 2003.
A mass stabbing incident occurred 6 August 2021, on a commuter train in the Odakyu Electric Railway in Tokyo, Japan. 10 people were injured in the incident.
Masakatsu Nishikawa was a Japanese serial killer who killed four snack bar hostesses and attempted to kill two others from 1991 to 1992 in three prefectures. An ex-criminal with a murder conviction, he was convicted of his latter crimes, sentenced to death and executed in 2017.
At around 8 p.m. JST on 31 October 2021, 24-year-old Kyota Hattori carried out a knife and arson attack on a Keiō Railway train as it was travelling to Kokuryō Station on the Keiō Line in Chōfu, a city in the western suburbs of Tokyo, Japan. He injured 17 people, one critically. Japanese authorities later identified Hattori and he was arrested at the scene.
On 17 December 2021, a fire occurred in a psychiatric clinic located on the fourth floor of the Dojima Kita Building in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan. The fire is suspected to have been started deliberately. 26 people were killed and a 27th was injured.
The Osaka movie theatre fire took place on 1 October 2008 at around 3 a.m., where an adult video arcade was set on fire deliberately. As a result, sixteen victims died and nine more were injured.
Ayumi Kuboki is a Japanese spree killer, suspected serial killer and former nurse who was convicted of killing three patients at the Oguchi Hospital in Yokohama using diamitol, all of which occurred September 2016. She is currently serving a life term, and remains under investigation for up to 48 total deaths that occurred at the hospital dating to July of that year.
Susumu Nakayama was a Japanese serial killer who killed his girlfriend's estranged husband and the latter's girlfriend in 1998, after being paroled from prison for a previous murder conviction in 1969. For the latter crimes, Nakayama was sentenced to death, but died in prison before the sentence could be carried out.
Real-name reporting is the term used primarily in Japan for the practice of mass media, when reporting an event, to clearly state the real names of the persons or organizations involved or providing information. While some consider it essential to improve the accuracy of news reporting and to monitor public authorities, others are against it from the standpoint of privacy, human rights and other issues, and there is a wide range of debate regarding the reporting of real names.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The Japanese forces then carried out the Gando Massacre, in which they indiscriminately attacked Koreans living in Eastern Manchuria and other regions, killing over 5,000 and burning down more than 3,500 homes.