SOLVEDListenShinjuku, Tokyo, Japan · 2018
In May 2019, Yuka Takaoka stabbed her boyfriend, Phoenix Luna, with a kitchen knife in their Shinjuku, Tokyo apartment after viewing photos on his phone; she was convicted of attempted murder in December 2019 and sentenced to 3½ years in prison.
Credit: Wikimedia CommonsPublic domainSourceSOLVEDListenHibiya Public Hall, Tokyo, Japan · 1960
On 12 October 1960, Japan Socialist Party chairman Inejirō Asanuma was fatally stabbed with a wakizashi by 17-year-old ultranationalist Otoya Yamaguchi, identified as the assailant, during a televised political debate in Tokyo. Yamaguchi was arrested, confessed, and died by suicide in custody on 2 November 1960.
Credit: HadgeCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenShimizudani, Kioichō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan · 1878
On May 14, 1878, Ōkubo Toshimichi, Japan's Minister of the Interior, was killed by six former samurai in Kioichō, Tokyo, in an attack that also killed his coachman; all six assailants surrendered the same day and were executed after trial.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters, Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan · 1974
On 30 August 1974, a bomb planted by the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front exploded at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Tokyo headquarters, killing eight people and injuring at least 376 others in what was then Japan's deadliest terrorist attack.
Credit: JTSBCC BY 4.0SourceSOLVEDListenTokyo Bay near Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan · 1982
On 9 February 1982, a Japan Air Lines domestic flight from Fukuoka to Tokyo crashed into Tokyo Bay short of the runway at Haneda Airport, killing 24 of the 174 people aboard, after the captain deliberately pushed the aircraft into a descent.
SOLVEDListenNakano, Tokyo, Japan · 2016
Jiang Ge, a 24-year-old Chinese graduate student in Tokyo, was stabbed to death outside her apartment on 3 November 2016 by Chen Shifeng, the ex-boyfriend of her roommate Liu Xin. Chen was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison; Liu was later found civilly liable in a Chinese court for locking the apartment door during the attack.
Credit: Brandon Daniel from Sunnyvale, CA, USACC BY-SA 2.0SourceSOLVEDListenTakeshita Street, Harajuku, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan · 2019
Early on January 1, 2019, a 21-year-old man drove a rental car the wrong way down Harajuku's crowded Takeshita Street, injuring nine people in what he told police was a terrorist act protesting the execution of Aum Shinrikyo cult members.
Credit: Rs1421CC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenHotel Grand Palace, Tokyo, Japan · 1973
On August 8, 1973, South Korean dissident leader Kim Dae-jung was abducted from a Tokyo hotel by agents linked to South Korea's Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA); he was found alive at his home in Seoul five days later.
COLDListenShinjuku and Kabukicho, Tokyo, Japan · 1981
Three women were strangled in love hotels in Tokyo's Shinjuku and Kabukicho districts in 1981, and a fourth woman survived a similar attack; the case remains unsolved and the statute of limitations has expired.
COLDListenInokashira Park, between Mitaka and Musashino, Tokyo, Japan · 1994
In April 1994, a janitor discovered 27 dismembered human body parts in trash cans at Inokashira Park in Tokyo. The victim, a 35-year-old architect identified only as "S," had been dismembered with unusual medical precision, and the case remains unsolved.
The files run from 1860 to 2022. The 1980s hold the most, with 3 files. The oldest is Sakuradamon Incident (1860), from 1860.
By type, the largest groups are murder and homicide cases (9), kidnapping and abduction cases (2) and robbery and burglary cases (2).
2 files of the 18 have coverage attached: 3 videos, podcasts and documentaries from 3 creators. Eleanor Neale, Annie Elise and Coffeehouse Crime have covered the most of them.
Every file is written from cited sources and pinned where it happened, and every person named carries the legal status the record gives them. If you hold information about an unsolved case, contact the investigating agency named in its file rather than posting it publicly. Families and anyone involved can request a correction from any file.
Junko Furuta — Credit: Furuta familyEditorial useSource
Inejiro Asanuma — Credit: Wikimedia CommonsPublic domainSource
Okubo-Toshimichi Kioi-no-hen — Credit: HadgeCC BY-SA 3.0Source
Victime’s House of Murder Case in Komae — Credit: イカしたイカCC BY-SA 4.0Source
Marunouchi 2chome Building 2012-10-08 — Credit: AsanagiCC0Source
Tokusoban-Nichiroku-20th-Century-volume-3-1 — Credit: Unknown photographerPublic domainSource
File:JAL Flight 350 wreckage 2.png — Credit: JTSBCC BY 4.0Source
Takeshita st — Credit: Brandon Daniel from Sunnyvale, CA, USACC BY-SA 2.0Source
Palace-Hotel-Tokyo-03 — Credit: Rs1421CC BY-SA 3.0Source
18. By status: 1 unsolved, 3 cold, 2 ongoing and 12 solved. The count covers published files only and changes as new files clear review.
Sakuradamon Incident (1860), from 1860. Open the file
Stabbing of Phoenix Luna by Yuka Takaoka, with 1 video, podcast or documentary linked from its file. Open the file
Eleanor Neale (1 case), Annie Elise (1 case) and Coffeehouse Crime (1 case).
It rebuilds hourly from the published files; the newest file change here is dated Jul 18, 2026. A status changes only when the record behind it does.
