Kaoru Kobayashi

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Kaoru Kobayashi
Born 1968
Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka
Penalty Death

Kaoru Kobayashi (小林 薫 Kobayashi Kaoru?, born 1968 in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka) is a former local newspaper delivery man, who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered Kaede Ariyama (有山 楓 Ariyama Kaede?, 1997 - November 17, 2004), a seven year old first-grade student from the Japanese city of Nara.[1] Kobayashi already had a record as a sexual offender at that time.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Kobayashi was born in 1968, in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka. Because his family was poor, he had worked as a paperboy since his childhood. His mother died in 1978. In 1989, he was convicted of sexually assaulting eight children.[2] He was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 2 years imprisonment. In October 1991, he attempted to kill a five-year-old girl and was sentenced 3 years in prison. He was paroled on November 9, 1995 and officially released on July 23, 1996.

Kobayashi had worked at a newsstand for Asahi Shimbun, also one of the national newspapers, in the Tomio area, between March and July 2000, so he knew his way around the Ikoma-Tomio area very well. At the time of the murder, he was employed as a newspaper deliveryman for Mainichi Shimbun, which is one of Japan's five national newspapers, in the Ikoma district of Nara Prefecture.

[edit] Kidnapping and murder

On November 17, 2004, in the Tomio section of Nara, Kobayashi kidnapped Kaede Ariyama, a student at Tomio North Elementary School, while she traveled from her school to her home. The kidnapping occurred in close proximity to Nara Prefecture's west-side police station. Using the girl's cellular phone, he sent Kaede's photograph with the message: "I've got your daughter" to her mother.[3]

Kobayashi murdered Kaede and dumped her body in the town of Heguri in the Ikoma District of Nara Prefecture. Her body was found that night. The autopsy revealed the cause of death to be drowning. The water collected in Kaede's lungs was not dirty, so it was assumed that the kidnapper had drowned her in a sink or bathtub. Also, it seems that the kidnapper had undressed the victim before murdering her, and that she was re-dressed after she was murdered.

There were also abrasions present on the hands and feet of Kaede, and several of her teeth were missing. It was assumed that the abrasions had been made post-mortem by the suspect. The removal of the teeth was also performed post-mortem.[4]

Several strands of hair were present on Kaede's clothes. Two types of hair were found: one type was judged to belong to a person with B blood type, the other type belonged to a person with AB blood type.

On December 14, 2004, Kobayashi sent an e-mail from Kaede's cellular phone to Kaede's mothers' cellular phones, saying "I'll take her baby sister next."[5] An image of Kaede was included in the e-mail.

[edit] Arrest

On December 30, 2004, Kobayashi, who lived in the town of Kawai in Kitakatsuragi District in Nara Prefecture, was arrested for kidnapping. The suburbs of Kitakatsuragi along with Tomio and Ikoma are all in the north-west area of Nara Prefecture.

Kobayashi had sent the victim's photograph from her cellular phone to his own. His use of the victim's phone helped speed his arrest because the local cell phone towers logged the messages sent from the phone. He showed off a photograph of Kaede Ariyama to a waitress and customers in a local bar. He claimed to have gotten the photograph from a website though it was not true.

Ironically, he was arrested after he had finished his morning paper route distributing the news that the suspect would be arrested soon.[6]

The police confiscated from his room a video and a magazine, containing child pornography.[7] In addition, Kaede's cellular phone and randoseru were discovered. In his room, there was a considerable amount of underwear[8], which had been stolen by him between June and December 2004.[9]

A witness saw Kaede walking to Kobayashi's car. It was then suspected that the victim and Kobayashi knew each other. However, Kobayashi said "I would have kidnapped anybody."[10]

On January 19, 2005, Kobayashi was prosecuted for kidnapping and was arrested for murder. Because he had previous sexual offenses involving girls, public attention turned to passing a law in Japan similar to Megan's Law in the United States.[11]

[edit] Reaction

[edit] Mainichi Shimbun

In the wake of the arrest, it came out that the manager of the newspaper delivery agency in Higashisumiyoshi Ward had made a report to the police that a newspaper subscription fee of 230,000 yen had been stolen. Afterwards, the manager discovered that it was Kobayashi, now working in Kawai. On November 17, 2004, the day of the kidnapping, a judge had issued an arrest warrant for Kobayashi for the embezzlement reported by the manager. However, the manager did not inform the police of this because he was promised that the suspect would repay him for the stolen money with monthly payments.[12] Therefore, the police were not able to arrest Kobayashi, and he was free to commit his attack.

As the result, Mainichi Shimbun announced on January 19, 2005, that it would terminate its contracts with these two delivery agents in Kawai and Higashisumiyoshi Ward in Osaka on January 31.[13]

[edit] Effect on Otaku

Japanese journalist Akihiro Otani suspected that the crime was committed by a figure moe zoku even before his arrest.[14] Although Kobayashi was not an otaku, the amount and degree of social hostility against otakus seemed to increase noticeably during this period, as suggested by increased targeting of otakus by law enforcement as being possible suspects for sex crimes, as well as by calls from many persons in local governments for stricter laws controlling the depiction of eroticism in materials which catered to otakus, for example, in erotic manga and in erotic videogames.[15]

Nobuto Hosaka criticised a lot of the hype[15], but Japanese mass media has never apologized.[16]

[edit] Trial and verdict

His trial began on April 18, 2005. Kobayashi said

“ "I want to be sentenced to death as quickly as possible, and leave a legacy among the public as the next Tsutomu Miyazaki or Mamoru Takuma"[17] ”

However, both Miyazaki and Takuma killed many children and were regarded as near insanity murderers. Miyazaki criticized the word "next Tsutomu Miyazaki". His psychiatrist diagnosed Kobayashi as suffering from antisocial personality disorder and pedophilia but being responsible for his actions. In fact, he might have been gnawed by a sense of guilt.[18]

Kaede's identity had been withheld by the Japanese media when the media learned of his sex crime, but the bereaved released her name and photograph in September 2006.

On September 26, 2006, Kobayashi was sentenced to death by hanging by the Nara district court. The defense made an appeal on the same day, but he retracted the appeal on October 10, 2006.[19]

His new lawyer claimed in June 2007 that his withdrawal was invalidity, which was declined by the Nara district court on April 21, 2008.[20][21]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Man held in Nara girl's slaying. The Japan Times (2005-01-08). Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
  2. ^ Nara girl's murder spotlights sex-crime recidivism. Asahi Shimbun (2005-01-05). Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  3. ^ A Burning Mystery. Time (2006-02-06). Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
  4. ^ Grisly details of Nara girl's murder emerge. Japan Today (2004-11-30). Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
  5. ^ Man held in girl's slaying. The Japan Times (2004-12-31). Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
  6. ^ NARA SLAYING/ Caught. Asahi Shimbun (2004-12-31). Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
  7. ^ Police: Killer forwarded photo of slain girl to his own phone. Asahi Shimbun (2005-01-03). Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
  8. ^ Nara suspect collected girls' underwear. Asahi Shimbun (2005-01-04). Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  9. ^ 女児誘拐殺人の捜査終結 下着窃盗容疑で追送検 (Japanese). 47 News (2005-02-28). Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  10. ^ Mainichi Shimbun (2005-01-01). Schoolgirl's killer says 'anybody would have done'. Japan Addicted. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
  11. ^ Arrest spurs debate on naming sex offenders. The Japan Times (2005-01-01). Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  12. ^ 奈良小１殺害、誘拐の日に逮捕状　前勤務先での横領容疑 (Japanese). Asahi Shimbun (2005-01-14). Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
  13. ^ 毎日新聞社が販売所２店との取引解約　女児殺害事件 (Japanese). Asahi Shimbun (2005-01-19). Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
  14. ^ 公開質問状 (Japanese). NGO-AMI (2004-12-09). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  15. ^ a b Otaku harassed as sex-crime fears mount. The Japan Times (2005-02-06). Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
  16. ^ Norihiro Akagi. 『「脳科学」化社会』 (Japanese). journalism.jp. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
  17. ^ Defendant admits abducting and killing schoolgirl in Nara. The Japan Times (2005-04-19). Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
  18. ^ "Parents reject letter from Nara killer", The Japan Times, 2006-11-05. Retrieved on 2008-03-05. 
  19. ^ Nara kidnap-murderer drops gallows appeal. The Japan Times (2006-10-11). Retrieved on 2008-02-14.
  20. ^ 本人の控訴取り下げ認める 女児誘拐殺人で奈良地裁 (Japanese). 47 News (2008-04-25). Retrieved on 2008-05-10.
  21. ^ 「控訴取り下げ無効」請求を退ける　小１女児誘拐殺人事件で奈良地裁 (Japanese). Sankei Shimbun (2008-04-25). Retrieved on 2008-05-10.
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