Killing of Daisaku Chiba

On the evening of 15 January 2007, Daisaku Chiba, a 20-year-old first-year student at Kyoto Seika University's Manga Department, was fatally stabbed while bicycling home from school. Chiba, who was originally from Sendai, was described as a lifelong artist who had aspired to become a manga artist.

At around 7:45 p.m., Chiba was riding his bicycle along a sidewalk in Sakyō-ku, a ward of Kyoto, when he was approached by a man described by witnesses as between 20 and 30 years old. Witnesses reported that the man was swaying from side to side and yelling obscenities at Chiba before stabbing him more than a dozen times, including wounds to the chest and stomach. Chiba was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

In the years following the killing, Chiba's professors and classmates at Kyoto Seika University created and distributed an informational manga detailing his life in an effort to raise public awareness of the case and generate leads. Investigators have reportedly received 1,350 pieces of information related to the case over time. In 2022, Japan's National Police Agency announced a reward of up to 3 million yen for information leading to the identification of the perpetrator. As part of ongoing efforts to solicit tips, police have distributed tissues printed with sketches of the suspected perpetrator at Kokusaikaikan Station, a practice that has reportedly been repeated multiple times in the past.

Despite these investigative efforts, including the volume of tips received and repeated public-awareness campaigns, the case remains unsolved as of the most recent reporting. No individual has been publicly named as a suspect, charged, or convicted in connection with Chiba's death.