Yoshinori Ueda

is a Japanese serial killer who was responsible for the so-called Osaka Dog Lover Murders (大阪愛犬家連続殺人事件), in which five people were poisoned with suxamethonium in Shiojiri, Nagano from 1992 to 1993. Ueda was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death, and is currently awaiting execution on death row.

Early life Yoshinori Ueda was born in 1955 in Yao, Osaka, the only son of a wealthy couple that owned a liquor store. Little is known about his upbringing, but when he was 30 years old, Ueda was asked by a friend to become a guarantor for a loan of 70 million yen. He agreed to, but after the friend disappeared, Ueda was left to pay the entirety of the loan by himself. Mortified by this, he begged his parents to pay it off, which they did, but then prohibited him from spending the family inheritance without supervision. After this incident, his personality reportedly changed completely. On July 27, 1992, Kashiwai told his acquaintances that he was going to attend his part-time job, but was never seen alive again. She did so on October 25 of that year, but never returned home afterwards.

Investigation and arrest Suspecting that the recent disappearances might be connected, the National Police Agency formed a special unit to investigate them. They eventually linked the victims back to Ueda, resulting in his arrest on January 26, 1994.

His claims were disregarded, and on March 20, 1998, he was sentenced to death by the Osaka District Court. Ueda then appealed to the Osaka High Court, which upheld the earlier verdict on March 15, 2001. As of July 2022, Ueda remains on death row awaiting execution.