When Nishikawa was 14, he was busted for stealing and sent to a juvenile reform center in Yonago, where he completed basic school lessons. At this time, his father had sold the family home and left, forcing him to look for work in Kyoto and Osaka before returning to Tottori in fall 1971. One of his sisters took him in, but he soon ended up back in juvie for theft. Nishikawa was granted a furlough in October 1973 during which time he worked for some relatives and eventually quit and spent most of his time hanging out in pachinko parlors and movie theaters. He befriended other troubled teens and began stealing and vandalizing property.

On July 6, 1974, he walked into a shop in Tottori and encountered the 26 year old female store manager. Nishikawa ordered her to get on the ground. The manager obeyed, but seemed to not take the boyish 18 year old seriously. She spoke to him in a half-mocking tone suggesting he'd better not try anything. Nishikawa was enraged at her disrespect, so he pulled out a knife from his coat, cut her throat, and stole ¥22,000 from her wallet. He fled the store, but was apprehended within a few hours, convicted of murder, attempted rape, theft, fraud and forgery, but received just 10 years in prison after the prosecutor asked for leniency on the grounds of his young age.

Nishikawa served nine years in prison and was paroled June 19, 1984. He found work at a Matsue pachinko parlor. On September 10, needing money, he tried to rob an inn in Tottori by attacking the owner's 58 year old sister with a paring knife, but was soon arrested. Nishikawa was convicted of robbery and attempted murder a few months later and sentenced to seven years in prison. He accumulated a considerable disciplinary record behind bars and was cited several times for starting fights with fellow inmates. Nishikawa was eventually put in solitary confinement. He was paroled October 25, 1991. Things were about to go from bad to worse.

After getting out of prison, Nishikawa was taken in by a fellow ex-con in Kurashiki who owned a condominium. On December 1, he tried to strangle a female shopkeeper but fled without stealing anything. On the 6th, Nishikawa went to his friend's house, befriended his wife, and then grabbed their 3 year old son and threatened to kill him if she didn't pay him money. The wife complied but Nishikawa fled without taking it. They reported him to police and an arrest warrant was issued. On December 10, he moved into another ex-con's home in Wake, stole ¥105,000, and fled. Nishikawa checked into a hotel in Himeji for the next two days.

His subsequent murder spree involved him pretending to be a customer, entering snack bars, and locking the door behind him if he found a female employee there alone. The neon lights in the bars were turned off and the doors locked from the outside to make it appear as if they'd closed earlier. A witness recalled that Nishikawa would ask the employees to turn off the lights and lock the door so he and supposed friends could browse the premises without others bothering them. He wore several jumpers of different colors and went by pseudonyms taken from the surnames of prison associates at his lodgings.

On December 11, Nishikawa stopped to ask for directions by the Himeji railroad station, but then stopped, remarked that he was a "terrible human being", and ran off. One of the clerks at the station reported the incident to police. The next night, he entered the "Kumi" snack bar, stabbed the 45 year old proprietress Kumiko Masaki with a knife, and stole ¥6,000 worth of cash, lottery tickets, and gift certificates. Nishikawa bought a train ticket and while riding on the train tossed the murder weapon out the window and later threw Masaki's credit card in a trash can at the Kinosaki Onsen station. Her purse was also found there with Nishikawa's fingerprints on it.

Masaki's body was found on the 25th with a couple of lacerations to the neck and abdomen. The police initially believed a friend of hers killed her and alcohol was involved, but this theory was later ruled out. On the afternoon of December 13, Nishikawa rented a room in the Toshuku Inn in Yonago which he paid for with the stolen lottery tickets. A police officer arrived to question him about an unrelated robbery, but not the murder, which he was not then a suspect in.

On the 20th, Nishikawa placed a purple jumper in a coin locker at Matsue Station and donned a yellow one with a light blue background. He stopped at a snack bar in town and asked the female employee to close the store so he wouldn't have to listen to other customers' karaoke singing. Nishikawa was unable to convince her to do so and some visibly annoyed customers started gathering, so he gave up and left. He stopped in Tottori, but hid out in a local park for two hours when a group of people were chasing him for being a suspected thief.

The next day, Nishikawa went into the "Key" snack bar, strangled its proprietress, 55 year old Fumiko Takahashi, and stole ¥500,000 in cash. He hailed a taxi and went to Yonago, then to a Kurayoshi snack bar where he deposited a bag containing his bloodied jumper. Nishikawa then went to Kyoto, called the store owners, but didn't return. On December 24, family members found Takahashi dead in the snack bar, stabbed three times in the chest. Nishikawa was now renting a room on the upper floor of the "Maki" snack bar.

Early in the morning of the 26th, he went to the snack bar's first floor, cut the throat of 55 year old Kyo Harada, and stole ¥5,000. Her body was found the next day, slashed in the throat and side of the chest, as well as strangled. A police task force was assembled to investigate the murder, but they did not realize that Nishikawa was skulking in some nearby bushes and overheard the officers talking, so he decided to flee. He was billed ¥30,000 for his rented room, but said he'd take the money from his bank account and left. Nishikawa got into a taxi, went to a hotel near the Yasaka Shrine, claimed his father was staying at the hotel and he'd be back to pay, and immediately left.

On December 28, Nishikawa went to the Nakama snack bar, a block from the previous crime scene, stabbed 51 year old Noriko Murakami with a knife, and stole ¥10,000 in cash. While he was looking for additional valuables, the victim's 25 year old son spotted him, so he hit him in the head with a beer bottle and fled. The son just sustained a few bruises, but Murakami died of blood loss. The Kyoto police, believing both recent murders were done by the same person, set up an investigating team. Nishikawa hid in an inn in Osaka. The Hyougo police put out an arrest warrant, so he paid ¥5,000 out of his ¥20,000 hotel bill, and fled.

Examination of the crime scenes tended to support the conclusion that it was the same person murdering and robbing snack bar proprietresses. Shoe prints came from the same sneaker type, and fingerprints at two of the snack bars were found to be those of Nishikawa. Three of the four victims were strangled before being stabbed, and all were snack bar proprietresses killed during the night hours. Meanwhile, Okayama police were investigating Nishikawa for a theft that was reported on December 10, and the prefectural police forces held a joint meeting. Since it was not yet proven that Nishikawa had done the murders, they decided to only charge him for the theft, but would continue the investigation for them.

Nishikawa was now hiding in the home of an ex-con in Wakayama Prefecture, then rode the train to Tennoji Station where he stayed in an Osaka inn under a pseudonym. He moved to an apartment opposite that of Hanae Katsura, a famous female rakugoka (comedienne) and robbed a neighboring apartment soon afterward. The next day, Nishikawa broke into a Daido condominium and stole ¥40,000. The occupants were not home, but it seems likely that he would have killed them if they were.

Nishikawa hid out in his apartment from January 1-5, 1992, mostly alone or chatting with an elderly neighbor. On the 4th, he ventured out to buy new sneakers and get rid of his old ones, which had left evidence at the crime scenes. The next day, Nishikawa knocked on Hanae Katsura's door and told her he needed to use her phone. She brought it to the door, whereupon he leaped on her and choked her unconscious. Katsura came to to find him ransacking the room. When Nishikawa saw that she'd gotten up, he went to choke her again and ordered her to tell where she had money hidden. Katsura told him, after which he stole ¥140,000 and fled, leaving her still alive and dazed. Before departing, Nishikawa told her he'd killed the two women in Kyoto and had fled from Shimane, leaving a newspaper article about his crimes on the front door. At one point, Katsura also said he lit a cigarette and while smoking it apologized for his crimes and said he did them because he needed to afford food.

Katsura spent ten days hospitalized. When she felt well enough, she informed police about the attack. The Osaka police investigated the assault and robbery, and found Nishikawa's prints in her home. All inns and hotels in Japan were put on lockdown while police from Osaka, Kyoto, and Hyougo conducted stakeouts.

On January 6, Nishikawa went to the fifth floor of a Daido condominium and knocked on the first door he came to. A 31 year old office worker answered and he claimed his parents were fighting, so could he stay in her place for a while? She told him he could stay for one day. Nishikawa passed the time by watching TV and playing Nintendo games with her school-aged son, even giving her ¥10,000 to buy him a toy at some point. The woman began finding him suspicious, but still let him stay after his 24 hours were up. In the early morning, while the son was sleeping, Nishikawa got up to get a drink of water, walked into her bedroom, and began choking her. The woman woke up and began yelling, so he let her go. Her son got up and began crying. Nishikawa choked the woman some more, but her son continued to cry, so he stopped, said he was sorry, and told them his name and about all of his crimes. He said he was going to turn himself in the next day.

After she took her son to school, she told a teacher that the fugitive snack bar killer was at her house. The teacher informed police, who came and found him calmly standing by the side of the school. He surrendered peacefully. The woman he stayed with was unwilling to press charges against him for attacking her. Nishikawa said afterward that he was thankful to her and Katsura for their understanding and letting him tell his side of the story. He claimed he killed purely to obtain money.

He was charged with the murders in all three prefectures; as Japanese laws lacked any clear language for dealing with a situation where a defendant was charged in multiple jurisdictions, it was decided to try him in Osaka as its court system had a smaller backlog of cases than the rest. Nishikawa was assigned three public defenders. He maintained his innocence for everything but the attempted Osaka murder. Until then, Nishikawa was held in Matsue Prison and in April attempted suicide. He was moved to Osaka Detention House and tried to cut his neck and arms with a razor.

The trial in Osaka District Court began on July 24, Judge Akira Nanasawa presiding. Nishikawa denied all of his crimes and offered conflicting reasons as to why he couldn't have done them. The prosecution countered that there was ample physical and circumstantial evidence tying him to the murders, as well as witness testimony. On the other hand, police had not found the murder weapons used in any of the attacks, which the defense seized on to argue there was no real proof of his guilt.

The prosecution presented evidence that Nishikawa was familiar with the lottery tickets taken from Masaki, which he used to pay for his room at the Toshuku Inn. The defense finally conceded that his fingerprints were found at the crime scene. The judges, prosecutors, and defense team on October 29 visited the Masaki crime scene. Hanae Katsura also testified for the prosecution, saying that Nishikawa attacked and robbed her, and even if he didn't kill her, he still deserved to go to jail. A female employee from the Harada crime scene also testified. On July 28, 1994, Nishikawa's defense team accepted that most of his confessions were probably true, but some statement he'd made were made when he was in a state of mental and physical exhaustion and should be disregarded.

The prosecution presented its closing argments on March 19, 1995 and requested the death penalty. The trial, which had lasted just shy of three years, finally concluded May 29. The judges believed Nishikawa to be guilty, but the exact motive for his crimes was unclear. The sentencing phase took place September 11 and he was sentenced to death. Judge Kaoru Matsumoto stated that although direct evidence that he killed Masaki was lacking, forensic evidence and his own statemements proved his guilt.

Nishikawa's defense immediately filed an appeal. The Osaka High Court took until January 21, 1998 to hear the case. The defense argued that Nishikawa was drunk when he did the first murder and innocent in the rest. The closing arguments happened December 15, 2000, at which he plead not guilty and shortly afterward changed his surname to Kanade. On June 20, 2001, Judge Motoyasu Kawakami rejected the appeal and upheld his conviction. The Supreme Court of Japan also refused to hear the case. By 2005, Nishikawa had changed his name back and his defense tried one more appeal to the Supreme Court, which was rejected.

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His defense team filed eleven more appeals over the next 12 years. The last one was rejected on May 11, 2017 and his date of execution set for July 18. The execution by hanging was carried out on time at Osaka Detention House. Several prominent figures, including University of Tsukuba professor Susumu Oda, social critic Yukio Akatsuka, and writer/ex-yakuza member George Abe all criticized the execution, arguing that Nishikawa deserved to be spared because of his deprived childhood and supposed maltreatment at correctional facilities.

>serial killer/psychopath :/
>Japanese serial killer/psychopath :O

>>18730041
tl;dr he hated his mom and sisters so resolved to kill any women who reminded him of them

>>18730046
>>18730045
Jesus, this is as bad as any American serial killer of the time.

>murders someone
>nah, it's just a youthful mistake a few years in the clink will rehabilitate him
>gets out on parole
>immediately goes 10x harder

>>18730102
The term used to refer to a Snack bar's owner / proprietess is "mama".

>>18730062
>She told him he could stay for one day. Nishikawa passed the time by watching TV and playing Nintendo games with her school-aged son, even giving her ¥10,000 to buy him a toy at some point.
>all it took were a few rounds of Family Stadium to chill him out and convince him to give himself up
LOL

>>18730075
it's funny but Japan not only actively uses the death penalty, but they do hangings with no concerns about botched executions or searching for more humane execution methods that have vexed Western cunts since the electric chair was invented 135 years ago.

>>18730070
Don't ask me why Japanese trials take several years to do.

>>18730122
quite the opposite effect that game had on Famidaily which was more like increasing his homicidal urges

>>18730058
>He moved to an apartment opposite that of Hanae Katsura, a famous female rakugoka (comedienne)
>"What's the deal with gaijin listening to city pop, anyway? Don't they know it's for old people and department store sound systems?" *cymbal shot*

>>18730058
>>18730062
this is the most Japanese story i've ever heard

>I'm sorry I had to kill those people. My crimes fill me with shame. I will turn myself in tomorrow. Thank you for your understanding.

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>>18730041
Evil Cantinflas.

>>18730125
Hanging is significantly more humane than electrocution or lethal injection

>>18730192
nta but the original move to the electric chair was motivated by some publicized hangings in the late 19th century where the prisoner slowly strangled on the noose instead of the intended quick break of the neck. i know for example that Minnesota decided to abolish capital punishment completely in 1913 after a high profile botched hanging a few years earlier.

>>18730041
obviously zainichi

>>18730198
Electrocution also has had plenty of botched executions from a dry sponge, equipment failure, low voltage. Similar thing with lethal injection. The act of slowly strapping a convict to a gurney/chair, preparing the equipment, etc is less humane than just having them walk over a trapdoor with a pre-prepared noose.

In the decades prior to its abolition in britain there were hardly any botched executions because they used trained professionals with standardized tables. Only reason americans fucked it up so much was because they always used the local sheriff to carry it out.