AICHI (TR) – On September 9, 2004, an unknown perpetrator fatally stabbed Toshiyo Kato, then 38 years old, and her three children inside their home in the town of Kutsukake, Toyoake City. The perpetrator then set the home ablaze.
The case remains unsolved.
The 20th anniversary of the incident will take place on Monday. Last Friday, the Toyoake City Hall began a weeklong exhibition that features about 30 items related to the incident, including photos of the four who died and pamphlets that have been distributed in an attempt to raise awareness with the public that the perpetrator remains at large.
“By holding an exhibition like this in Toyoake, we can prevent the incident from being forgotten,” said Toshiyo’s sister, Amami, reports Fuji News Network (Sep. 8). “We are grateful that [the city] agreed to hold the exhibition. This way, we can prevent [this murder] from happening again.”
Amami was among about 40 people, including police officers, who distributed tissue packs with information on the case at a shopping center near the crime scene on Sunday.
Similar events and memorials for the family have been held nearly every year since the murders. However, one person has been conspicuously absent: Toshiyo’s husband, Hiroto Kato.
Since the incident took place two decades ago, Kato has remained in the shadows, refusing to participate. This, along with his subsequent partaking in the pleasures of Nagoya’s nightlife quarters and arrest for fraud has raised more than a few eyebrows about his possible involvement in the murders.
“Time-delay device made from mosquito coils”
The incident occurred at around 4:25 a.m. on September 9, 2004, when a fire broke out at the home. The bodies of Toshiyo, eldest son Yuki, then 15, eldest daughter Rina, 13, and second son Shogo, 9, were found in the ruins. All four had been stabbed with a knife.
“The culprit scattered kerosene and used a time-delay device made from mosquito coils,” an investigator tells the site for weekly tabloid Flash. The fire ignited some time after the murders, so it’s possible that he had carefully constructed an alibi.”
Hiroto Kato was working the night shift at the time of the murder and was not at home. Since there were almost no signs that the home had been ransacked, Aichi Prefectural Police began an investigation under the assumption that the murders were motivated by a grudge.
Tens of thousands of police man-hours have been dedicated to the case and 193 pieces of information have been received, but no useful information has led to the arrest of the perpetrator.
Annual memorial services have been held on the day of the incident at the site of the house where the crime occurred. Family members and investigators from the Aichi Prefectural Police have participated.
Thus far, Kato has never shown up, despite living near the crime scene.
“It is understandable that he would not attend, for example, because he has various feelings, such as wanting to forget about the incident, but…” the same investigator continues.
“Put her children first”
Amami often finds herself speaking in soft tones to the portraits of her deceased sister and three children lined up on a Buddhist altar at her home in Aichi Prefecture.
Every morning, she offers the children milk, which they loved, and iced coffee to Toshiyo. She also holds small gatherings on each of their birthdays.
On the birthday of the eldest son, Yuki, after the Obon festival, they had a drink together in front of the Buddhist altar. In the past, he was only provided juice, but now that he is an adult, he is given beer. She also asks questions and makes requests. “Are you all doing well?” “Are the four of you together?” “Yuki, please protect your mother!”
Amami still treasures mementos from the family, including Ultraman and Godzilla dolls, miniature cars, playing cards, pictures and woodblock prints and Toshiyo’s maternal and child health handbooks.
The house where the incident occurred was demolished two years after the incident, but Amami brought the treasures back before that. There were scorched marks here and there, conveying the horrific nature of what had transpired.
Amami, who has three children herself, was four years older than Toshiyo. Inseparable, they exchanged emails and phone calls 10 times a day.
“Toshiyo always put her children first,” she tearfully tells Flash, “so I wonder what she was thinking when she passed away. I think she must have wanted to help them. She and I were really close. So right after the incident, I felt like I had a big hole in my body.”
“I want him to put his life on the line to find the perpetrator”
The day of the incident was Shogo’s birthday. However, that day never came for him.
“The children’s dreams and hopes were taken away from them when they were just starting out in life,” Amami says. “If the culprit is not caught, these children will never come of age. So I need to know the cause of the incident. Otherwise, I won’t be able to see Toshiyo and her children when I go to the other side.”
Encouraged by her children, Amami began to give interviews to the media and distribute flyers on the streets. Five years after the incident, she requested the Aichi Prefectural Police to hold a memorial service. This was attended by members of the Sora no Kai, a Tokyo-based group composed of the families of murder victims.
Amami finds it curious that Hiroto does not attend these gatherings.
“I heard through the grapevine that he thought he had no role to play because I was taking action,” Amami says. “I feel the difference in their feelings. As the father of the three children, I want him to put his life on the line to find the perpetrator.”
“Husband had a mistress”
The relationship between Toshiyo and Hiroto was complicated before the incident.
“In fact, [Hiroto] had not been around for several years before the incident,” Amami says. “Divorce was looming, and Toshiyo was worried about how to live with three children. But she believed that her husband would return to his kind former kind self.”
That is not all.
“At the time of the incident, the husband had a mistress,” the aforementioned investigator reveals. “He frequented nightlife spots and wasted a lot of money. He got into debt, and was arrested for swindling money from the company where she worked.”
In March 2005, six months after the incident, Kato was arrested by the Aichi Prefectural Police on suspicion of fraud for allegedly swindling about 5.2 million yen in cash by selling a computer that he had obtained illegally at his workplace.
In addition, it was discovered that he had received cash by placing inflated orders for machine tools from a trading company, and the total amount stolen, including sales for the aforementioned computers, came to about 13 million yen.
At the time, Kato was fond of several exclusive members-only clubs in Nishiki, Nagoya. He also began living with a hostess he had met.
Although he earned more than 10 million yen a year, he began to struggle to pay for living expenses in addition to covering outlays for the hostess. So, he turned to consumer loans. In order to repay his mounting debts, he planned to sell the computers on the black market.
“Given a polygraph test”
At the first hearing at the Nagoya District Court, Hiroto fully admitted to the charges.
“The fraud case was a separate case, and the main issue was the connection to the murder-arson case,” a person involved in the investigation explains.
However, that connection was never made, and the police received substantial criticism for that. The Nagoya District Court subsequently sentenced Kato, who was charged with fraud, to three years in prison, a sentence that was suspended for four years.
At a press conference afterwards, Hiroto expressed his gratitude for the lenient sentence and also mentioned the arson and murder case. “I was investigated by the police as a suspect, even though I had nothing to do with it,” he said. “I was also given a polygraph [lie detector] test. It’s unfortunate that some reports have made it seem as though I was involved.”
Since then, Hiroto has not been seen in public.
“Gave money to women”
Kato now lives with his relatives in a corner of a residential area within walking distance of the crime scene. The house has a main dwelling and a detached house, where he resides by himself.
A reporter for Flash visited Kato at night on a day in 2021 just as he was returning home. After the reporter called out to him, Kato appeared in the pitch black entrance hall with short hair and bright, dark eyes. The reporter revealed that he works for the weekly tabloid.
“I have nothing to say,” Kato said. “If you look at the articles you’ve written up until now, I don’t want to say anything.”
However, after the reporter explained the gist of the interview, Kato loosened up letting it slip about the fraud case and his affair.
“I’ve paid for the computer [fraud],” Kato said. “Well, cheating is a crime, if you like. I inflated the bills at work and got kickbacks. I had fun in the nightlife quarters and gave money to women. If you read an article about that, you’d think there was something else [connecting me to that murder-arson case], right? So there’s no point in saying anything anymore.”
Kato’s eyes didn’t wander. He remained calm. He explained why he spent so much time in the nightlife quarters: “It was just fun to have fun. That’s all. I was pampered. Looking back now, I think it was stupid. I’ll always think about it. I was addicted at the time. Because I had [more than one hostess].”
When the reporter tried to ask him about his feelings in more detail, his voice sounded irritated. He said, “No matter what people say to me, the mere mention of my cheating past sounds like, ‘It’s all your fault. That’s why [the murder-arson case] happened. Do you understand?'”
Regarding whether there was any connection to the murder-arson case, Kato said, “There’s no way.” And with a fearless smile he added sarcastically, “I can’t say there’s no way. With the power of the pen, you can turn white into black, right?”
When asked if he hoped for the culprit to be arrested soon, he nodded slightly. “Yes,” he said.
“That’s something we have to leave to the police. If the culprit is arrested and we can put an end to this, I think the past [that was made a big deal by the media] will probably become irrelevant. I’m getting old, so I want to spend my time peacefully.”
After talking for about an hour, the reporter left. As he did, Kato said calmly, “If this is an interview, then everything I’ve said here is a lie.”
