was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese tempera

Tempera

Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium . Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and examples from the 1st centuries AD still exist...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

. He was convicted of mass poisoning and sentenced to death

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

, though he is suspected to have been falsely charged

Miscarriage of justice

A miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful...

 and no justice minister signed his death warrant.

Teigin case

On January 26, 1948 a man calling himself an epidemiologist arrived in a branch of the Teikoku Bank (aka Teigin) at Shiinamachi, suburb of Toshima, Tokyo, before closing time. He explained that he was a public health official sent by US occupation authorities who had orders to inoculate

Inoculation

Inoculation is the placement of something that will grow or reproduce, and is most commonly used in respect of the introduction of a serum, vaccine, or antigenic substance into the body of a human or animal, especially to produce or boost immunity to a specific disease...

 the staff against a sudden outbreak of dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

. He gave all sixteen people present a pill and a few drops of liquid. Those present drank the liquid he gave, which was a cyanide

Cyanide

A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....

 solution. When all were incapacitated, the robber took all the money he could find, which amounted to 160,000 yen. Ten of the victims died at the scene (one was a child of an employee) and two others died while hospitalized.

Arrest and trial

Hirasawa was caught by the police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 due to the Japanese habit of exchanging business card

Business card

Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company affiliation and contact information such as street addresses, telephone...

s with personal details. The poisoner also created two other incidents. The poisoner used a card which was marked "Jiro Yamaguchi" in one of the two incidents, but it was later found that Yamaguchi did not exist. The poisoner also used a card which was marked "Shigeru Matsui" in another of the two incidents. Matsui told the police that he had exchanged cards with 593 people, including Hirasawa. The police were led to Hirasawa through finding the money of unknown origin. He was identified as the poisoner by several witnesses.

He was arrested on August 21, 1948. He was also found to be in possession of sizable amount of cash, whose origin Hirasawa refused to divulge. After police interrogation which allegedly involved torture, Hirasawa confessed, but he recanted soon after. His later defense against confession was based on partial insanity, alleging that he had been troubled with Korsakoff's syndrome

Korsakoff's syndrome

Korsakoff's syndrome is a neurological disorder caused by the lack of thiamine in the brain. Its onset is linked to chronic alcohol abuse and/or severe malnutrition...

 and so his story was not reliable. The court, however, disagreed and Hirasawa was given the death penalty

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 in 1950. Until 1949, a confession had been a solid evidence under the law, even if the police tortured a person to extract a confession. The Supreme Court of Japan

Supreme Court of Japan

The Supreme Court of Japan , located in Chiyoda, Tokyo is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law...

 upheld the death sentence in 1955. His attorneys tried to have the sentence revoked, submitting 18 pleas for retrial over the following years.

Doubt over guilty verdict

He was sentenced to death, but there was originally no conclusive evidence. In addition, although 40 employees saw the crimes, there were only two people who identified him as the criminal. Seichō Matsumoto

Seicho Matsumoto

was a Japanese writer.Seichō's works created new tradition　of Japanese mystery / detective fiction. Dispensing with formulaic plot devices such as puzzles, Seichō incorporated elements of human psychology and ordinary life. In particular, his works often reflect a wider social context and postwar...

 presumed that the true culprit was Unit 731

Unit 731

was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese...

 in his books; A story of the Teikoku Bank Incident in 1959 and The Black Fog of Japan in 1960. Matsumoto also suspected that "the money of unknown origin" came from selling pornographic drawings. Kei Kumai

Kei Kumai

was a Japanese film director from Azumino, Nagano prefecture. After his studies in literature at Shinshu University, he worked as director's assistant....

 protested Hirasawa's innocence by his film The Long Death in 1964.

Successive Ministers of Justice in Japan

Minister of Justice (Japan)

The is the member of the Cabinet of Japan in charge of the Ministry of Justice. The post has been held by Hideo Hiraoka since 2 September 2011.- Ministers of Justice :...

 did not sign his death warrant, so the death sentence was never carried out. Even Isaji Tanaka, who on 13 October 1967 announced in front of the press that he had signed death warrant of 23 prisoners in one go, did not sign Hirasawa's death warrant, stating that he doubted Hirasawa's guilt.

The poison was regarded as potassium cyanide

Potassium cyanide

Potassium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline compound, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include jewelry for chemical gilding and...

 in Hirasawa's trial. However, Keio University

Keio University

,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...

's investigation claimed that the true poison may have been acetone cyanohydrin

Acetone cyanohydrin

Acetone cyanohydrin is an organic compound used in the production of methyl methacrylate, the monomer of the transparent plastic polymethyl methacrylate , also known as acrylic.-Preparation:...

 which Hirasawa could not have obtained. It is regarded as one of the reasons to doubt his guilt because the victims' symptoms were clearly different from potassium cyanide poisoning.

Death in jail

Hirasawa remained in prison as a condemned criminal for the 32 years. He spent his time painting and writing his autobiography .

In 1981, Makoto Endo became the leader of Hirasawa's lawyers. Besides the case, he took part in controversial trials such as Norio Nagayama

Norio Nagayama

was a Japanese spree killer and novelist.-Biography:Nagayama was born in Abashiri, Hokkaidō and grew up in a broken home. He moved to Tokyo in 1965 and, while working in Tokyo's Shibuya district, witnessed the Zama and Shibuya shootings....

. The defense claimed that statute of limitations

Statute of limitations

A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...

 for his death penalty ran out in 1985. The death penalty has 30-year statute of limitations under the Criminal Code of Japan

Criminal Code of Japan

The Penal Code of Japan was passed in 1907 as Law No. 45. It is one of the Six Codes that form the foundation of Japanese law.- External links :* - Japanese Ministry of Justice...

, and so Endo appealed for his release. However, the Japanese court refused this argument pointing out that the statute only applies in the case if a death row inmate escapes from prison and evades capture for 30 years. Japanese courts judge that the punishment begins when the minister signs the death warrant. His health deteriorated in 1987. On April 30, 1987, Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 petitioned the Japanese government to release him. He died of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 in a prison hospital on May 10, 1987.

After his death

Even after Hirasawa's death, his stepson Takehiko Hirasawa has tried to clear his name. They submitted a 19th plea for retrial. His brain damage was also proved. , his lawyers have submitted new evidence to attempt to prove Hirasawa's innocence.

In popular culture

Based on the Hirasawa case is a 2009 novel, entitled Occupied City, by English author David Peace

David Peace

David Peace is an English author. Known for his novels GB84, The Damned Utd, and Red Riding Quartet, Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in their 2003 list...

, who was long resident in Japan.

See also

• Iwao Hakamada
  Iwao Hakamada
  is a former Japanese professional boxer, who was sentenced to death for a June 10, 1966 mass murder. However, he is also suspected to be falsely charged and has not been executed....
  
  
• Matsuo Fujimoto
  Matsuo Fujimoto
  was a Japanese executed man, who was charged for a 1952 murder and was executed by hanging in 1962. His guilty verdict, death sentence and execution, made controversies, because he suffered from leprosy and the Japanese government were urging the discrimination and prejudice against the leper...
  
  
• Sakae Menda
  Sakae Menda
  is a Japanese man who was convicted of a double homicide, but was exonerated by retrial in 1983. This was the first time anyone was ever released from death row by retrial in Japan...
  
  
• Mitaka incident
  Mitaka incident
  The was an incident that took place on July 15, 1949 when an unmanned 63 series train with its operating handle tied down drove into Mitaka Station on the Chūō Line in Tokyo, Japan, killing 6 people and injuring 20....
  
  
• Sayama Incident
  Sayama Incident
  The is a murder case named after Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, where it took place. The incident, in which a man was imprisoned for 31 years, highlighted official discrimination against Japan's burakumin.-The murder:...
  
  

Further reading

• Seicho Matsumoto
  Seicho Matsumoto
  was a Japanese writer.Seichō's works created new tradition　of Japanese mystery / detective fiction. Dispensing with formulaic plot devices such as puzzles, Seichō incorporated elements of human psychology and ordinary life. In particular, his works often reflect a wider social context and postwar...
  
  , A story of the Teikoku Bank Incident, 1959
• Seicho Matsumoto, The Black Fog of Japan, 1960
• J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, The New Murderer's Who's Who, 1996, Harrap Books, London

External links

• Noose or Pneumonia? Time
  Time (magazine)
  Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
  
  February 15, 1963
• Sadamichi Hirasawa Is Dead; Was on Death Row 32 Years New York Times May 11, 1987
• 19th bid to clear late murderer's name Sydney Morning Herald, July 12, 2003
• Psychiatrist, 100, fights to clear late convict's name Japan Times May 10, 2006
• Art of 'Teigin Incident' convict to be exhibited Japan Times November 23, 2006
• Experts doubt Teigin Incident verdict Japan Times November 26, 2006
• Art exhibition launched to clear Hirasawa's name Japan Times April 4, 2007
• Teigin Incident artist exhibition tour starts Japan Times May 19, 2007 Teigin Case - Homepage created by his supporters Teigin Case Timeline