Police Keep Hunting for Killer of Setagaya Family 25 Years On

Tokyo, Dec. 30 (Jiji Press)–The brutal murder of a family of four in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward remains unresolved a quarter century after the crime, despite many clues left at the scene, such as fingerprints and bloodstains, and police continue their desperate search for a person responsible for the fatal assault case. As suspects in some other murder cases that had been unresolved for a long period were arrested this year, Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department is redoubling efforts to identify a suspect in the Setagaya case while trying to prevent the incident from being forgotten. In the high-profile case that occurred between the late hours of Dec. 30, 2000, and the small hours of the following day, corporate worker Mikio Miyazawa, 44, his wife Yasuko, 41, and their daughter, Niina, 8, were fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife and the couple’s son, Rei, 6, was strangled at their home in Setagaya Ward’s Kamisoshigaya district. Miyazawa was stabbed more than 10 times, and Yasuko and Niina dozens of times each. More than 100,000 yen in cash was stolen from the house. In addition to fingerprints and footprints, type A blood was collected from more than 10 places at the site of the crime. DNA profiles were also detected, and items such as a black jacket, a shirt, gloves and a pouch were left at the scene. At the time, the police thought the case would be resolved soon. But their investigations hit a snag as the family had no specific trouble, and the culprit and motives have remained unknown for 25 years. The MPD has mobilized a total of about 298,300 officers and examined some 14,700 tips from the public. However, the police are receiving less and less information about the case, with the number of such tips totaling only 184 in 2024. Incidents suggesting that the crime is being forgotten have happened. Some high school students were referred to public prosecutors for drawing graffiti on the fence surrounding the house or trespassing on its premises as a courage test, without knowing that it is the site of murder. Earlier this month, someone apparently broke a window and entered the house. The MPD is taking measures to keep the incident remembered. Officers in charge of unresolved cases are giving lectures at police academies and police stations, in view of the fact that most of the MPD officers are those who entered the police department after the incident. The MPD has distributed information on the incident to all staff workers and updated a video used as a teaching material for its staff three times. In March this year, a man was arrested for allegedly killing a former co-worker in 2003. A woman was arrested in late October on suspicion of murdering a housewife in the central Japan city of Nagoya in 1999. Masayuki Okabe, chief of the MPD’s first criminal investigation division, said, “Seriously taking the fact that the Setagaya case has remained unsolved for 25 years, we will continue our investigations with a strong determination to capture the murderer.” Miyazawa’s 94-year-old mother, Setsuko, is desperately hoping for the case to be resolved. “While I am still alive, I want to be able to tell (my son and his family) that ‘the killer has finally been caught,'” she said. Setsuko often feels unwell due to her age. She previously used to visit the grave of the four deceased relatives every year, on the anniversary of the incident. But she has given up the practice because she cannot go without someone’s help. Setsuko said she “felt hopeful” when she heard the news of the arrest of the suspect in the 1999 murder case in Nagoya. Still, she said she also “gradually came to feel” over time that it would be difficult for the murder of her family to be resolved. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]