“Kitakyushu Serial Confinement and Murder Case (Futoshi Matsunaga) — Isn’t this case just insanely dark?”
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WARNING: Warning: The details of this case are extremely disturbing. Please proceed with caution if you choose to research it further.
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A 5 chan Thread (2024)
Thread Title:
Kitakyushu Serial Confinement and Murder Case (Futoshi Matsunaga) — Isn’t this case just insanely dark?
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| From manga “Monster” |
1: (OP)
Futoshi Matsunaga’s brainwashing (mind control) techniques were so extreme that the FBI reportedly studied the case.
Has there ever been a Japanese crime like that before?
Even just reading the Wikipedia article made me feel sick:
This was a confinement and serial murder case that occurred in Kokurakita Ward, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, from 1996 to 2002.
M.F. (Male, 40 years old at the time of arrest), repeatedly threatened and abused his partner (common-law wife), relatives, and acquaintances who lived with them, eventually manipulating them into killing each other.
There were 7 victims in total. The case came to light in 2002 when a girl who had been the first to be confined managed to escape.
In 2011, M. was sentenced to death. His common-law wife also received a life sentence as an accomplice to the murders.
It’s considered one of the most heinous crimes in Japanese history.
(See Wikipedia )
3:
This guy totally ruined Kitakyushu’s reputation.
4: (OP)
>>3
Yeah, it’s pretty bad. Just seeing some rowdy young people at a coming-of-age ceremony makes me worry that something like that might happen again.
⭐️Note:
How some people dress at a coming of age ceremony in Kitakyushu:
6:
>>4
Nah, it’s a pretty peaceful city overall.
9: (OP)
>>6
Peaceful? Where?
I almost died the other day getting chased by a car with a Chikuho license plate.
12:
>>9
That’s Chikuho, though.
15: (OP)
>>12
Yeah, but that car came to Kitakyushu. That’s what I’m saying.
5: (OP)
The case was so brutal that people compare it to the “Concrete-Encased High School Girl Murder Case”. That tells you how bad it was.
WARNING: This is another deeply disturbing and heartbreaking case, involving a prolonged period of severe torture that ultimately resulted in the murder of a young girl. Please do not research the details lightly or without due caution.
7:
I read a book about it recently.
Apparently, his execution hasn’t been carried out yet.
8:
But didn’t he go blind?
I want to believe it was from guilt.
13: (OP)
>>8
Who went blind?
14:
>>13
Matsunaga did.
16: (OP)
>>14
What’s your source?
27:
>>16
28: (OP)
>>27
I googled “Futoshi Matsunaga blind” and nothing came up.
Where’s the source for that X post?
⭐️Note:
I found a source on the Japanese Wikipedia page for this case:
“According to his (Matsunaga’s) son, he developed diabetes while in prison, and now he has lost his eyesight and needs assistance with everyday life.”
10:
He even made little kids, like preschool-aged, kill each other.
Absolutely sickening.
18:
Is it true that when a police officer came to rescue the confined family, Matsunaga just talked to him at the door, won him over, got him to help with the electric shocks, and then sent him back?
25: (OP)
>>18
Never heard that, but one of the victims’ relatives was a police officer, and perhaps he was tortured and killed with electric shocks, too?
19:
The dude was weirdly handsome.
He looked like Haruma Miura (Note: Miura was a Japanese actor.)
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| Matsunaga in elementary school |
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| Matsunaga in high school |
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| Matsunaga at the time of his arrest |
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| Matsunaga and his partner (accomplice) |
20: (OP)
>>19
He reportedly had straight As in school too.
Even the teachers were fooled.
Apparently, he was doing horrible things behind the scenes.
23:
>>20
Wow.
They say psychopaths often have a charming exterior.
Guess it’s true.
26: (OP)
>>23
With that face, super polite, and all A’s — no one suspected him.
But there were a lot of other victims even beyond this case.
32:
I don’t get what the point was.
Isn’t it exhausting to confine and manage so many people?
He was smart, but his actions weren’t rational.
Then again, we’re not supposed to understand how criminals like him think.
33: (OP)
>>32
That’s what makes a psychopath — they enjoy watching people suffer.
34: (OP)
This case even inspired a story in Ushijima the Loan Shark.
37:
I honestly think this is the most disturbing case ever.
The fact that the killer didn’t lay a finger on anyone himself makes it even worse.
39: (OP)
>>37
He’s like if Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy were combined.
It’s one of those cases where the criminal had a freakishly high IQ.
38:
>>1
I thought he a member of Soka Gakkai?
40: (OP)
>38
So he was connected with yakuza?
45:
Soka Gakkai used to use mind control (they used to call it brainwashing) to keep members loyal.
If you use the same technique, controlling other people is easy.
Even in that case in Sasaguri, Fukuoka, where a little boy starved to death, a female Gakkai member manipulated her mom friend with gaslighting — took her money and abused her kids.
>>40
I can’t say for sure, but there are definitely a lot of Gakkai members with yakuza ties.
48: (OP)
>>45
That “Black Nurse” in the Fukuoka insurance murder case was also insane.
52:
I was reading the Ushijima-kun arc based on this case, but it got so revolting I had to stop.
55: (OP)
>>52
Try reading the actual Wikipedia page — it’s even worse.
60:
If a young Futoshi Matsunaga lived in today’s world, he’d probably be leading one of those yami baito.
63: (OP)
>>60
That would be TERRIFYING.
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LINKS & VIDEOS:
⭐️Matsunaga’s Elderst Son runs a YouTube channel where he tells about his life as a murderer’s son.
The videos are all in Japanese, but you can turn on the subtitles!
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| Matsunaga and his son (from the YouTube channel) |
⭐️ The Futoshi Matsunaga Murder Spree... in Full Detail
Content warning: Contains explicit descriptions of torture and murder
⭐️Futoshi Matsunaga (Wikipedia)
⭐️The Forest of Love
A Netflix movie based on the case.
Trailer
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⭐️Ikko Ono, a journalist who published a book on the case, recounts his spine-chilling encounter with the murderer:
Mr. Ono approached Matsunaga and, in 2008, managed to meet him for the first time.
“When I first met him, I was surprised by how cheerful he was. He welcomed me with a smile, saying,‘Sensei, thank you for coming all the way here. It must have been difficult.’ At first, he called me ‘Sensei, Sensei,’ but gradually that changed to ‘Mr. Ono,’ and eventually to ‘Ikko-san.’ I believe he did that deliberately to create the impression that our relationship was becoming closer.”
Mr. Ono had interviewed people related to the case and also attended the trial. He said he felt the possibility of wrongful conviction was extremely low.
Even so, he began to feel a creeping fear that he might be manipulated by Matsunaga.
“He spoke haltingly, pleading his innocence. ‘I’m being subjected to a witch hunt. I’m about to become a victim of the justice system,’ he said. Little by little, I began to feel as though my own sense of objectivity was being eroded,” said Mr. Ono.
Then in December 2011, the death sentence was finalized. From that point on, contact suddenly ceased.
“At some point, the letters stopped coming. Even when I tried to arrange a visit, he no longer agreed to see me. I think he was trying to use me to claim his innocence to the public. But since I stayed vague and just tried to get him talk as much as possible, he must have decided I was ‘useless.’ I sometimes wonder if I should have tried to control him better and kept the relationship going longer. But at the same time, there was also a sense that evil itself was drawing close, so I was also relieved it ended.”
Matsunaga reportedly said to Mr. Ono, “I don’t know if I can trust you, Ikko-san, but I believe I can trust a person like Ono Ikko, and that’s why I’m telling you this.”
Mr. Fujii (a professor of Psychology) drew our attention to this way of speaking.
“Rather than saying from the beginning, ‘I trust you,’ saying, ‘I’m not sure I can trust you, but I choose to trust you,’ sounds more persuasive. On top of that, it embeds the message that he wants you to trust him. His psychological manipulation techniques are incredibly advanced.”
He added:
“Another important point is that his first impression was a friendly smile that didn’t match the image of a heinous criminal. When there’s a gap between non-verbal expressions and verbal information, it causes great confusion in the other person. That complexity can create an atmosphere where one feels, ‘Maybe I should just go along with him and make him feel good.’
What goes through a person’s mind when they commit a heinous crime? In search of that answer, Mr. Ono has spent years in conversation with murderers. In his book, he wrote of death row inmate Futoshi Matsunaga—“Perhaps the devil is, unexpectedly, a being this free of guile”—and of his manipulated accomplice, Junko Ogata.
“Of course,” Ono says, “issues in early childhood can be one of the causes. But through my interviews, I’ve come to realize that even people who were truly raised with love and care can, under certain circumstances, end up committing murder. We must not assume that murderers are a different kind of human being from ourselves. Thinking that way is dangerous arrogance. No matter how good a person may be, if they are placed in an environment where they suffer repeatedly and deeply, they too could become a brutal killer. I want people to understand that.”
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⭐️Ikko Ono, in an interview about his book on the case
Interviewer: Futoshi Matsunaga, who orchestrated everything at the heart of the case, was described by his former classmates as a smooth talker and a bit of a clown. From high school onwards, he was actively involved with women. The book also introduces testimonies that say he was “a liar” and “liked to bully those weaker than himself.” He may have been a troubled youth—but at the same time, he also gave the impression of being an ordinary young man.
Ono: I, too, was deeply interested in what led Matsunaga to commit crimes of such magnitude.
He was born in Kokurakita Ward, Kitakyushu City (then Kokura City), as the son of a family running a tatami mat shop. During elementary school, his family moved to Yanagawa City in Fukuoka Prefecture, where his father’s family home was located.
According to classmates from that time, he was already bullying weaker children. He was submissive to those stronger than himself, and domineering toward the weak. That tendency had been present since childhood.
By high school, he had grown tall, and with his naturally handsome features, he became popular with girls. In his second year of high school, he was expelled for harboring a runaway girl at his home and transferred to another school.
At the time, a friend once told Matsunaga, “You shouldn’t think of women as people. Think of them as ‘cash cows.’” Matsunaga seems to have been heavily influenced by those words. If you look at the rest of his life, you’ll see that he consistently made women spend money on him and lived off them.
But of course, that alone wouldn’t lead to murder.
From the violent aspect, during the time he was running the door-to-door bedding sales company “World,” there is testimony that he began forcing his employees to shock each other with electricity—and that he would watch, enjoying their writhing in pain.
He also subjected Junko Ogata (his partner and accomplice) to years of abuse. I believe he found pleasure in inflicting harm. His sadistic tendencies, which had always been there, were gradually amplified, and his desires grew more extreme over time.
He seemed to possess a peculiar instinct for identifying people who were weaker than him—those who wouldn’t or couldn’t resist.
Comments
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It’s so hot in Japan!😱
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To think there's a real human like Johan (at least from the way he did things, not his motive) is so scary, humans can be scary sometimes, and this is one of those times! 😞
Again, thank you for the story, Saya-san!
This guy targeted people who were honest and pure😔
It breaks my heart that such innocent people had to suffer like this!
Thank you so much for your comment! 🙏🏻