Shinichiro Azuma had been abusing animals before killing kids in Kobe

Serial killer and animal abuser
From @inumenken on X.com
Name	Shinichiro Azuma (東真一郎)
Age	14 (at the time of offenses)
Occupation	Student
Known Identifiers	Public
Status	Released
Involvement	Perpetrator of the 1997 Kobe Child Murders.
Punitive Measure	Sentenced to a medical reformatory, granted provisional release in March 2004 and full release in January 2005.

The Kobe Child Murders (神戸連続児童殺傷事件, Kōbe renzoku jidō sasshō jiken) were a series of violent attacks committed in 1997 by a 14-year-old boy in Suma, Kobe, Japan. At the time, the perpetrator was identified only by the codename Boy A (少年A) in accordance with Japanese law protecting juvenile offenders. His real name, Shinichiro Azuma (東真一郎), was later published by a tabloid magazine following the release of his controversial autobiography in 2015. During the crimes, he adopted the alias Seito Sakakibara (酒鬼薔薇聖斗), which he used in notes left with his victims. The case, which involved the murder of two children and the assault of three others, shocked the nation due to its extreme brutality and the perpetrator's youth, ultimately leading to major reforms in Japan's juvenile justice law.

Perpetrator's identity exposed by a Japanese magazine.

Background and development

Family environment

Azuma's home environment was characterized by emotional distance and strictness. As the eldest son, he faced a more rigid upbringing than his siblings, which included physical punishment. This created a significant emotional gap between him and his parents. His mother placed immense academic pressure on him, continuing to focus on his school performance even after social workers warned her of his deteriorating mental state. This combination of a cold disciplinary style and intense pressure, lacking emotional warmth, fostered suppressed anger and resentment, leading to an internal world of violent fantasy.

Psychological catalyst

The death of Azuma's grandmother when he was 11 years old was a pivotal event. He had been closer to her than any other family member, and her loss triggered a profound psychological crisis. Instead of typical grief, he developed a morbid and obsessive curiosity about the nature of death, consumed with understanding how a living being could cease to exist. This pathological response to loss triggered his quest to understand and control mortality, which became the driving force for his first "experiments" with killing.

Escalation of violence

Azuma's path to murder followed a classic trajectory of escalating violence, beginning with animal cruelty.

Phase 1: 'Scientific' exploration and desensitization

Following his grandmother's death, Azuma began dissecting insects and frogs, framing his actions as a scientific inquiry into the mechanics of life and death. He described an "experiment" where he rode his bicycle over a line of frogs to observe their bodies bursting, concluding with a chilling detachment, "So this is death". Through these acts, he systematically desensitized himself to violence, objectifying living creatures for his morbid studies.

Phase 2: Fusion of sadism and sexual impulse

As his depression and alienation deepened, his aggression escalated from small creatures to mammals. He began torturing and killing neighborhood cats and pigeons, driven by a burgeoning sadistic impulse rather than pseudo-scientific curiosity. In his autobiography, Zekka (絶歌), Azuma explicitly connected the act of killing a cat to a powerful "sexual impulse," admitting the violence was a source of psychosexual gratification. He described crushing a cat's face as a "victory" over death that provided an "ecstasy" superior to any other sensation, marking the development of sexual sadism.

Phase 3: Deviance in a school setting

Azuma's aggression began to manifest at school, where he engaged in acts like placing thumbtacks on teachers' chairs and throwing scissors at female classmates. When confronted, he reportedly told teachers, "Anyway, I'm still a child, even if I kill someone, I won't go to jail". This statement revealed a chilling awareness of his legal status as a minor, which he used as a shield to justify and continue his escalation of violence.

Timeline of behavioral escalation

Timeframe (Approx.)	Event / Behavior	Psychological Significance
Age 11 (c. 1993)	Death of grandmother.	Pathological catalyst; grief manifests as morbid curiosity about death.
Age 11–12	Dissection of insects and frogs.	"Scientific" exploration of mortality; objectification of life and desensitization to killing.
Age 12–14	Torture and killing of cats and pigeons.	Fusion of violence with sexual gratification; development of sexual sadism and a sense of power/control over death.
Age 13–14	Minor assaults at school (thumbtacks, scissors).	Testing of social and legal boundaries; public expression of aggression.
Age 14 (1996–1997)	Began carrying a knife to school.	Weapon becomes a tool for emotional regulation and a symbol of power; preparation for greater violence.
Age 14 (Feb–Mar 1997)	Attacks on elementary school girls.	Transition from animal to human victims; application of "experiments" on people.

Human attacks

'Sacred experiments' and first murder

The transition from animal cruelty to interpersonal violence occurred in early 1997. On February 10, 1997, he assaulted two elementary school girls with a hammer. On March 16, he lured 10-year-old Ayaka Yamashita to a secluded location and struck her with a hammer, causing fatal injuries. Shortly after, he stabbed another young girl nearby. A diary entry from this period revealed his intent: "I carried out sacred experiments today to confirm how fragile human beings are". He viewed his victims with the same detachment as the animals he had killed previously.

Azuma's stated motivations were rooted in nihilism and sadism, confessing he "desperately want[ed] to see people die" and found murder to be a "thrill". In letters to the media, he wrote, "it was only when I kill that I am liberated from the constant hatred that I suffer and that I am able to attain peace". This indicates violence had become his primary method of emotional regulation. A key psychological mechanism was the dehumanization of his victims, whom he referred to as "vegetables," a term he claimed to have learned from his parents as a way to overcome nervousness. He twisted this advice into a core part of his ideology, stripping people of their personhood to allow him to inflict suffering without empathy or remorse.

Murder of Jun Hase

The culmination of Azuma's violence was the murder of 11-year-old Jun Hase, an acquaintance of his younger brother. On May 24, 1997, Azuma lured Hase to a secluded hilltop, where he strangled him to death and hid his body. He returned the next day and decapitated the body with a handsaw. Subsequent psychiatric reports indicated that he then engaged in acts of necrophilia and cannibalism, including drinking the victim's blood. These acts represented the apex of his sexual sadism, where the boundaries between violence, death, and sexual gratification were completely erased.

Public challenge

The perpetrator put the head of Jun Hase in front of the gate of Tainohata Elementary School.

Azuma sought a public audience for his crimes. On the morning of May 27, 1997, he placed Jun Hase's severed head at the front gate of Tomogaoka Junior High School. He stuffed a note written in red ink into the victim's mouth, which read, "This is the beginning of the game... Try to stop me if you can you stupid police". He signed it with his alias, "Sakakibara Seito." He later sent a 1,400-word letter to the Kobe Shinbun newspaper, further taunting authorities and blaming the educational system for making him an "invisible person". This theatricality highlighted his profound narcissism and need to assert power through extreme violence.

酒鬼薔薇聖斗 sent out a letter to the press.

Investigation and legal outcome

Azuma was arrested on June 28, 1997, and confessed to the murders and assaults. Due to his status as a minor, his case was handled by the Kobe Family Court instead of an adult criminal court. The official psychiatric evaluation identified his core pathology as Sexual Sadism (性的サディズム, seiteki sadizumu), defined by intense sexual arousal from the suffering of others. The evidence included his own admissions linking killing to sexual ecstasy, the "thrill" he derived from murder, and the ritualistic, sexualized nature of Jun Hase's murder.

Subsequent analysis has suggested the possibility of an underlying, undiagnosed Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), such as a condition on the autism spectrum. Characteristics associated with PDD, including difficulties with social-emotional reciprocity, lack of empathy, and obsessive interests, map closely to Azuma's documented history. His inability to process his grandmother's death normally and his dehumanization of victims align with the impaired social understanding characteristic of PDD. While not a direct cause of violence, PDD could create vulnerabilities that, when combined with other risk factors, contribute to a catastrophic outcome. The two diagnoses are not mutually exclusive; the PDD may have created the psychological foundation upon which his sexual sadism developed.

The court sentenced him to an indeterminate period in a medical reformatory. Azuma was granted provisional release in March 2004 and full release from state custody on January 1, 2005.

Aftermath

Autobiography Zekka

Perpetrator's autobiography

In June 2015, under the name "Former Boy A," Azuma published an autobiography titled Zekka (絶歌), which translates to "Desperate Song" or "Final Song." The book, which recounted his crimes in graphic detail, was published without the consent of the victims' families and sparked a major public controversy. The book is widely viewed as the work of an unreliable narrator, marked by a self-indulgent and pretentious tone with a lack of genuine remorse. In the book, Azuma frames himself as a tragic, misunderstood figure, focusing heavily on his own suffering. Rather than an act of atonement, Zekka can be analyzed as a continuation of the theatricality of his crimes—an attempt to control the narrative and cast himself as the complex protagonist.

Societal and legal impact

The case shattered Japan's perception of itself as a safe society and ignited a fierce national debate on juvenile crime and the adequacy of the Japanese Juvenile Law (少年法, Shōnen-hō). The public outcry was a direct catalyst for significant legal reform.

In 2000, the Diet of Japan passed a major amendment to the Juvenile Law. The reform marked a philosophical shift away from a purely rehabilitative model toward one that incorporated greater accountability.

Key amendments to the Japanese Juvenile Law (2000)

Legal Area	Pre-Kobe Status (Before 2000)	Post-Kobe Change (2000 Amendment)	Rationale / Impact
Age of Criminal Responsibility	Criminal prosecution was limited to offenders aged 16 and older.	Lowered to 14 years and older for serious criminal offenses.	To ensure that perpetrators of heinous crimes, regardless of being 14 or 15, could be held criminally accountable.
Trial Jurisdiction for Serious Crimes	Family court judges had broad discretion to keep cases within the juvenile system or refer them to adult court.	Introduced the principle of mandatory "reverse referral" (gyakusō) for homicide cases committed by offenders aged 16 or older.	To ensure that juveniles who commit the most serious crimes face the possibility of adult criminal sanctions, reflecting the gravity of their offenses.
Victim and Family Rights	Victims and their families had very limited rights to participate in or be informed about juvenile court proceedings.	Granted victims and families the right to attend hearings and view case records.	To acknowledge the immense suffering of victims, increase transparency, and give them a meaningful role in the justice process.