Yukio Yamaji was a Japanese serial killer who murdered his own mother in 2000, and then murdered a 27-year-old woman and her 19-year-old sister in 2005. He was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.
Background:
Yamaji was born in Yamaguchi, Japan, in 1983. He was a quiet and withdrawn child, and he had a troubled relationship with his mother. His father died when he was young, and his mother was often physically and emotionally abusive towards him.
In 2000, when Yamaji was 16 years old, he killed his mother with a baseball bat. He claimed that he did it because she was abusive towards him. He was arrested and sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention center.
The murders:
Yamaji was released from the juvenile detention center in 2003. Two years later, on November 17, 2005, he raped and murdered a 27-year-old woman named Asuka Uehara and her 19-year-old sister, Chihiro, with a knife, in Naniwa, Osaka. He then set fire to their apartment and fled. The two victims had never met Yamaji before. He was arrested on December 5, 2005.
The trial:
Yamaji confessed to the murders and was found guilty. He was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.
News quotes:
- “He is a monster,” said one police investigator. “He lured these young women to their deaths with promises of help, and then he killed them in cold blood.”
- “This is a case of unspeakable horror,” said the prosecutor in the case. “The defendant is a danger to society, and he deserves to be put to death.”
- “I am sorry for the pain and suffering I have caused,” Yamaji said in a statement to the court. “I ask for your forgiveness.”
Timeline of the crimes:
- July 29, 2000: Yamaji kills his mother with a baseball bat.
- October 2003: Yamaji is released from the juvenile detention center.
- November 17, 2005: Yamaji rapes and murders Asuka Uehara and Chihiro Uehara.
- December 5, 2005: Yamaji is arrested.
- December 13, 2006: Yamaji is sentenced to death.
- July 28, 2009: Yamaji is executed.
Aftermath:
Yamaji’s case shocked and horrified Japan. It raised questions about the country’s mental health care system and the way that violence against women is treated. Yamaji’s death sentence was upheld by the Japanese Supreme Court, and he is the youngest person to be executed in Japan since 1997.