The Kofu District Court has sentenced a 19-year-old man to between 10 and 15 years in prison for killing his grandparents in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture in September 2015.
The grandson, who cannot be named because he is a minor, was found guilty of killing his grandfather Masuo Mishiro, 83, and his grandmother Setsuko, 81, by stabbing them with a kitchen knife at their residence, Fuji TV reported. Police said their bodies were in separate rooms on the second floor of their home. They had multiple stab wounds to their bodies.
The court heard that the grandson planned the crime in advance by wearing a mask for disguise and preparing a change of clothes following the act. Furthermore, his motivation to inherit his grandparents' assets was ruled as “shortsighted and selfish,” the presiding judge ruled.
© Japan Today
19 Comments
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Matthew Simon
That's it 10-15 for double pre-meditated homicide?
bones
Japan justice for you,life is meaningless if you think about it in their determining of a fitting sentence.
Strangerland
For a minor, that's a pretty long sentence.
serendipitous
Always seem to be light sentences for murder in Japan if you keep it in the family.
Disillusioned
Isn't 19 still a minor? Why do they call him a man? He is a boy! That also means he will serve his time in a juvenile detention center, not a real prison, doesn't it?
FightingViking
Again : 19 year old male - or youth...
Hicoway
I’ve got to say, from my western perspective, condoning 12-year-old gravure models while considering 19-year-old men to be children is thought provoking. Granted the executive control function of the cerebral cortex to put the brakes on untoward emotional decisions is not fully formed before the early 20s, but I would also opine that the hard brain wiring in such a person who would kill his grandparents to hasten his inheritance is different enough from the mean to warrant elimination from society and its gene pool.
oyatoi
The killer awoke before dawn, he put his mask on...... Grandfather, yes grandson, I want to kill you.
It makes you wonder what kind of relationship they had prior to this. Did they have any inkling the little droogie was nurturing dreams of ultra madness depravity? Did they perceive the callous and wanton disregard for life and cowardly betrayal that lurked behind the angelic demented smile?
Yubaru
If you are old enough to vote at 18 you are no longer a child. This guy is lucky, if he had been one or two years older he may have faced the death penalty.
shallots
@Yubaru science says otherwise. But I do think this is a light sentence. This person should not be walking the streets in ten years or even 15.
smithinjapan
Good old Japan -- life is cheap and meaningless. And here I always thought it was the death penalty if you killed two people, and this was not only murder, but premeditated murder.
And they're worried about naming him in public!!
C Harald Hansen
Aren't Japanese prisons hellholes anyway? I hope he gets the worst end of it all.
Peteritalia
hang him or hand him to ISIS
Yubaru
Meaning what? At 19 you are still a child?
Strangerland
Until he's 20, then as far as I know, they will move him to an adult facility.
Alphaape
Curious, does he still get any inheritance? Is there a law that says he shouldn't be able to since he killed off the people he was going to inherit from? It would be sad that after 15 years in prison, he walks out with something.
stormcrow
19 is old enough to know better, isn't it?
And the motivation was greed . . . hmm
If he had been abused by grandma & grandpa in some terrible way, then maybe the sympathy card would play here.
But greed?
vinarius@pm.catv.ne.jp
Jesus, what is the world becoming ???.
roosterman77
@smith... Good old Japan? You really have some issues with this country. Worried about naming him in public? Huh? They can't name him! Nothing to do with being worried about it.