Japanese Killer, Keeper Of Nine Bodies To Go On Trial

A Japanese man charged with the murder and dismemberment of nine people near Tokyo is to go on trial later this month at the Tokyo District Court, Tachikawa branch.

Takahiro Shiraishi, a 29-year-old is charged with killing eight women and one man over a four month period in 2017.

The youngest of his victims was 15, the oldest 26.

He then allegedly stored the bodies of his victims in cooler boxes in the home where he lived in Kanagawa Prefecture near Yokohama.

It is believed Shiraishi sexually assaulted all eight of his female victims although whether or not this was prior to death has not yet been released.

 

Shiraishi, a former ‘scout‘ in Tokyo’s red light district of Kabukicho used his experience in luring young women into Japan’s notorious sex industry to gain the trust of his female victims, eventually inviting them to his apartment near a U.S. military base.

It is believed he approached those showing suicidal tendencies online and offered help to those wishing to die.

The man he murdered had visited Shiraishi’s apartment looking for his sister, an earlier victim of the killer.

Japanese police, while searching for one of the victims, finally unearthed the cooler boxes containing the bodies while conducting a search in October, 2017.

After being arrested, Shiraishi underwent five months of psychiatric evaluation according to the Japanese language Sankei Shimbun; criminal accountability being a pre-requisite in Japan for death penalty verdicts.

The trial will begin on September 30th, with a verdict to be handed down on December 15th.

Japan’s criminal justice system has a high rate of conviction for cases going to court, and for multiple homicides the death penalty is commonly handed out, although criminals remain on death row for many years following conviction as they go through a lengthy appeals process.