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 from 1974, he was convicted of his latter crimes, sentenced to death and executed in 2017.

Early life Masakatsu Nishikawa was born on January 14, 1956, in Tottori, the youngest of five children and the only son. His father was a day laborer who paid little attention to his children, as a result of which Nishikawa lived predominantly with his mother, as his sisters would go to the San'in region in winter to earn money for the impoverished family. In 1962, he enrolled in elementary school, but rarely attended due to frequent bullying, which prevented him from fully partaking in his studies. forcing Nishikawa to search for work in Kyoto and Osaka, before returning to Tottori in October 1971. He then stole her wallet containing 22,000 yen and fled, but was arrested and brought to the police station six hours later.

After spending 158 days behind bars, Nishikawa was paroled from the Matsue Prison on June 19, 1984.

Murders Background Two days after his release, Nishikawa moved in with a former inmate he had met in Tottori Prison, living in his condominium in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. In the ensuing 41 days, he tried to strangle a female store owner, but fled without stealing anything. On December 6, he went to his ex-convict friend's house where he befriended and talked with his wife, but at one point he grabbed the couple's 3-year-old child and threatened to kill them if the woman did not give him money. The incident was reported to police, who put out a warrant for his arrest. When the bodies were discovered, it was noted that the neon lights of all four bars had been turned off, and that in three of them, the doors had been locked from the outside to simulate that they had closed early. According to an employee at a bar in Kyoto, Nishikawa would approach them and ask that they turn off the neon lights and lock the door, as he and several supposed friends who wanted to browse the premises without being disturbed by others. He also used pseudonyms taken from the surnames of prison associates at his lodgings.

Kumiko Masaki At around 16:00 on December 11, 1991, Nishikawa stopped by the offices of the West Japan Railway Company near Himeji Station, ostensibly to ask the clerk for directions. However, he then leaned over the counter, said that he was a "terrible human being", and then fled in a hurry; in the meantime, another clerk had reported the incident to the police.

The following night, he entered the "Kumi" snack bar, where he suffocated the 45-year-old proprietress Kumiko Masaki and stole 6,000 yen in cash, gift certificates and lottery tickets. That same night, while riding on the San'in Main Line, he threw out the murder weapon through the window and later disposed of her credit card at the Kinosaki Onsen Station. Masaki's bag was also found there, along with his fingerprints.

The woman's body was found around 20:20 on December 25, with several puncture wounds on her neck and abdomen.

The afternoon after the murder, Nishikawa booked a room at the Toshuku Inn in Yonago, paying with the lottery tickets he had stolen.

Fumiko Takahashi On December 20, Nishikawa deposited a purple jumper in a coin locker at Matsue Station,

Kyo Harada Before dawn on December 26, he went to the first floor of the "Maki" snack bar, slashed 55-year-old Kyo Harada's neck with a knife and then stole 5,000 yen. Her body was found in the afternoon of the following day, with two injuries to the neck and one to the left side of the chest, as well as strangulation marks. Unbeknownst to them, Nishikawa was eavesdropping on the investigators, and decided he would leave on the next day. He was charged with 30,000 for his expenses, but claimed that he would transfer it from his bank account later and left. The son was left with minor injuries, but Murakami died from blood loss at the hospital.

In the meantime, he went into hiding at an inn in Tennōji-ku, Osaka. The next day, when the Hyōgo Prefectural Police put out a warrant for his arrest, he paid 5,000 yen out of the 20,000 he owed to the proprietor and fled. In addition to this, three out of the four victims had first been strangled before being stabbed to death, and all four were reasonably wealthy snack bar proprietresses killed at night. In the end, it was decided that Nishikawa should be listed as a fugitive for the theft, but would remain a person of interest in the murders. then went on the Hanwa Line and travelled to Tennōji Station, where he stayed at an inn in Osaka under a pseudonym. He then moved to an apartment opposite that of Hanae Katsura, a famous female rakugoka, and robbed a neighboring apartment soon after. At that time, this incident was considered a simple burglary since the inhabitants were not present, but it was considered that they likely would have been killed if they were. When she brought it to the front door, he suddenly burst into the room and strangled her into unconsciousness. When Katsura awoke, she found him ransacking the room, and after noticing that she had woken up, Nishikawa started to choke her again. He threatened the woman to tell where the money was, and when he loosened his grip on Katsura, she told him where she had hidden it. Nishikawa then stole 140,000 yen and fled the apartment, without finishing off his would-be victim.

Arrest On January 6, around 19:00, Nishikawa went to the 5th floor of a condominium in Daido, where he knocked on the first door he saw. When the homeowner, a 31-year-old office worker, answered the door, he lied to her that his mother and father-in-law were arguing and asked to stay with her for a while. The woman eventually grew suspicious of him after he refused to leave, but still allowed him to stay. However, the woman yelled out, causing him to release her, in addition to waking up the boy, who started crying. Police officers rushed to the scene, where they discovered Nishikawa patiently standing in the corridor, and duly arrested him without incident.

After his arrest, Nishikawa expressed his gratitude to Katsura and the woman for hearing him out and sympathizing with him, despite what he had done. He then admitted to the four murders and explained his motivations by saying that he wanted to steal money and could only get it by killing, but eventually began restraining himself from doing it.

Nishikawa was soon after indicted by the other district courts and appointed a lawyer in each of them. However, it was determined that he would be incapable of paying the legal fees, and therefore, three public defenders from the Osaka Bar Association were assigned as his defense counsel. He was then transferred to the Osaka Detention House, where he slashed his neck and arms with a razor on June 29. while prosecutors argued that it was due to his frustration about the evidence mounting against him. He was charged with four murders and robberies, which he vehemently denied and gave conflicting explanations as to why. The prosecutors countered his claims with the accumulating circumstantial evidence, including his blood type matching that found at the crime scene where Takahashi had been killed and witness statements. On the other hand, no murder weapons were found in any of the cases, with his defense counsel arguing that no direct evidence pointed towards Nishikawa being the culprit in any of the individual cases.

At the second session on October 5, the prosecutors presented evidence that the defendant was "familiar" with the lottery tickets taken from Masaki, which he had used to pay his stay at the Toshuku Inn. The defense counsel eventually conceded to the fact that the two fingerprints found at the crime scene undoubtedly belonged to Nishikawa.

At the fourth session held on December 21, Hanae Katsura appeared as a witness for the prosecution, testifying that she had been attacked by him and expressing her belief that while he had not planned to kill her, she still wanted the defendant to be punished harshly. A cross-examination was conducted at the Kyoto District Court on January 29, 1993, of a female employee working at the scene where Kyo Harada had been found, who testified about the situation inside the store before and after the crime, the presumed murder weapon, etc.

At another court hearing on July 28, 1994, Nishikawa's lawyer admitted that a majority of the 180 points regarding the confessions were likely truthful, but claimed that 12 of them (concerning two instances in which his client had supposedly admitted to all four murders, etc.) were not voluntary, and had been extracted from him in a state of mental and physical fatigue. The proceedings were concluded on May 29, with Judges Yoshiki Matsumoto and Keiichi Taniguchi recognizing that evidence indicated in the latter three murders pointed towards Nishikawa's guilt, but his motive remained unclear. The judgment trial was held on September 11, and the presiding judge, Kaoru Matsumoto, pronounced the death sentence for Nishikawa. In his final statement, he pointed out that while material evidence was lacking in the Masaki murder, the convict's own confessions as well as the results of the DNA analysis and the shoe imprints linked Nishikawa to the crime scenes. The closing arguments were held at the 15th court session on December 15, 2000, with Nishikawa pleading not guilty. A few weeks after this decision, Nishikawa changed his last name to Kanade, after the surname of a chaplain who had been visiting him in prison.

The decision was announced on June 20, 2001, with Judge Motoyasu Kawakami upholding the death sentence and dismissing the appeal. Kanade was returned to the Osaka Detention House, where he would remain until his execution. In 2004, he began corresponding with American professor David T. Johnson, admitting to him in a letter that he was praying for the other death row inmates, and wished to be reintegrated back into society.

On June 7, 2005, Nishikawa (who had returned to his original surname) and his defense counsel filed for a final appeal trial before the Supreme Court, with presiding Judge Kunio Hamada. The attorneys requested for their client to be acquitted in the murders of Takahashi, Harada and Murakami, while the prosecutors recommended that the death sentence be maintained. frequently responding to questionnaires by anti-death penalty activists and claiming that he was innocent of the crimes. His final request was dismissed on May 11, 2017, and his execution date set for July 18 of that year. On that day, the 61-year-old Nishikawa was hanged at the Osaka Detention House; another murderer, Koichi Sumida, was hanged at the Hiroshima Detention House on the same day.

His execution was criticized by several prominent members of Japanese society, due to the convict's upbringing and supposed harsh treatment at correctional facilities. Among these critics were University of Tsukuba professor Susumu Oda, social critic Yukio Akatsuka and writer/former yakuza George Abe.