Press "Enter" to skip to content

Ex-Ginza hostess accused of murder had sex-change surgery

Flash Feb. 24
Flash Feb. 24

Earlier this month, Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Azuha Kikuchi, 28, for allegedly killing her boyfriend, Yuji Hirata, in the apartment they shared in Chuo Ward.

On February 1 and 2, the suspect allegedly used a metal bat to repeatedly beat the head of the victim, a 48-year-old manager of a hostess club in the nearby Ginza district. She also stabbed him in the chest with a knife.

According to Flash (Feb. 24), it was a case of premeditated murder perpetrated by a woman who was once a man and struggling with her identity.

“Before the incident, Kikuchi purchased the bat,” a reporter covering the police beat tells the magazine. “The police are viewing this as a planned attack.”

Four years ago, Kikuchi came to Tokyo from Fukuoka. She started living with Hirata about one year ago, after she met him while working as a hostess at his club.

A source working in the Ginza district tells Flash that Kikuchi bounced around the area from one high-end club to another.

“She had a gruff personality that turned off customers, who never requested her,” says the insider. “She is also nearly 180 centimeters in height, which is very imposing.”

Kikuchi eventually met Hirata.

“He took care of her,” continues the aforementioned source. “Her last job was at confectionery shop, that is, before she quit. So it seems that she only had Hirata to rely on.”

The impetus for the attack came after Kikuchi had seen a photograph of Hirata with another woman. “Things got complicated after we talked about separating,” Kikuchi later told police. “So I stabbed and beat him.”

Once information about the murder appeared in major news outlets, Internet bulletin boards became filled with comments about Kikuchi’s cute and beautiful appearance.

Kikuchi has experience as a model. In 2013, she appeared under the name “Azuha Mine” in a monthly erotic DVD series titled “Legs Queen” in which her tall frame can be seen posing in a number of suggestive positions. Two years before that, she appeared fully nude for a photo shoot.

Given the overtly feminine nature of the output of the two aforementioned examples, few probably would realize that Kikuchi was once a man.

Azuha Kikuchi as "Azuha Mine"
Azuha Kikuchi as “Azuha Mine”

“She has a gender identity disorder,” says the aforementioned reporter. “She’s registered as a woman on her koseki (family registry), but she had a sex-change operation in Thailand. Her previous name was that of a male.”

Flash visited the apartment of her parents in Fukuoka. When nobody answered the bell at the front door, the magazine spoke with a neighbor, whose testimony paints a picture of a very confused person.

“The family has a daughter and a son, but I’ve never once seen them together,” says the neighbor. “The son refused to ride the elevator with anyone. If someone else was in the car when he was about to enter he’d retreat back into the house. This happened all the time. The daughter, who was very beautiful, did the same thing.”

More likely, says Flash, the family has only one child, a person who became so consumed by passion for the one man she loved that she was willing to commit such an atrocious crime.

Source: “Kinzoku batto ‘bijo satsujin-han’ no heanuudo shashin,” Flash (Feb. 22, pages 16 and 17)