Shige Sakakura

was a Japanese baby farmer and serial killer who, together with two accomplices, was responsible for the murders of numerous infants in Hioki Wakasa (present-day Nagoya) between 1898 and 1913. For her crimes, both she and her accomplices were sentenced to death and hanged in 1915.

Life and crimes Shige was born in 1868 in the Tsu Domain, the daughter of a mechanic, and as an adult, she married a man belonging to the Sakakura family in Hioki Wakasa. In 1898, she began working as a midwife, accepting illegitimate children for 40-50 yen each, which she then began killing one after another. Of these, four, including 62-year-old Suzuki Nobu, were taking care of more than 170 children.