Shojiro Nishimoto

was a Japanese serial killer responsible for four robbery-murders committed in Aichi and Nagano Prefectures between January and September 2004. He was sentenced to death for these crimes, and subsequently executed for them in 2009.

Early life Shojiro Nishimoto was born into a wealthy family in Iida on October 22, 1976, with his father working at a bento production company of which his mother was the company president's daughter. Not long after his birth, his father was sent on a work assignment in Tokyo, leaving the young boy to be looked after by his mother. On August 21, 1988, he was transferred to the Iida Hamaiba Elementary School, where he gained a reputation as a seemingly normal student, with the exception that he often skipped school because he felt that he wasn't very good at it.

Despite his newfound love, Nishimoto was amounting debts from rental companies and his personal expenses, which eventually forced him to turn towards burglary to find a source of income.

Murders While driving in his white Nissan Cedric through Nagoya on January 13, 2004, Nishimoto's car ran out of gas. Having no mode of transportation, he wanted to steal a bicycle, but as he was unable to find one, he instead got into a taxi and asked to be taken to Kasugai. As he was unable to pay off the entirety of his debts to the car rental companies, he started searching for his next target.

By examining the phone book, which showcased subscribers' addresses and family structure for the area of Takamori, Nishimoto chose his next target: 69-year-old Hitoshi Kato, an unemployed pensioner whose residence was isolated from other homes. On August 10, he broke into Kato's home and stabbed him in the chest with a yanagi ba, with the elderly man perishing from blood loss.

During his appeal trial in October, Nishimoto suddenly confessed another murder: allegedly, he had strangled a woman in Fukushima circa April or May 2003, and later buried her body somewhere along the mountain range. After his trial, investigators from Fukushima Prefecture were sent to locate the supposed burial site, but were unable to locate it. When pressed about this, Nishimoto claimed that the whole thing was a fabrication made out of a paranoid feeling that his parents and siblings would abandon him if he was found guilty of murder again.

Execution In January 2007, Nishimoto withdrew all his appeals, officially accepting his death sentence. And thusly, on January 29, 2009, he was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House. He was one of four death row inmates to be executed on that day: two others, Yukinari Kawamura and Testuya Sato, were executed in a double hanging at the Nagoya Detention House, while Tadashi Makino was hanged at the Fukuoka Detention House.