The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Japan and its predecessor entities ranging back to the Tokugawa shogunate (Some historical numbers may be approximate). The massacres are grouped into different time periods. Massacres have become a growing problem in contemporary Japan in recent years, with at least 110+ deaths during the 2010s.
Most notably, the 2019 Kyoto Animation arson attack claimed at least 36 lives and injured an additional 34. It is one of the deadliest massacres in Japan since the end of World War II and the deadliest building fire in Japan since the 2001 Myojo 56 building fire. It was considered "suicidal terrorism" by one criminology professor at Rissho University, as the attack was reportedly intended to be a suicide mission by the suspect.[1] In December 2021, another arson attack occurred, this time at a building in Osaka, specifically at a psychiatric clinic located on the fourth floor. It killed 25 and injured an additional 3. The suspect, who died in hospital two weeks later, is believed to have been inspired by the 2019 attack in Kyoto.[2]
| Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 1571 | Siege of Mount Hiei | Inside the Enryaku-ji temple complex on Mount Hiei | Oda Nobunaga's army | 1,500-4,000 | Massacre of the Buddhist warrior monks who refused to submit to the warlord Oda Nobunaga.[3] |
| 1579 | Siege of Itami | Itami Castle, Settsu Province | Oda Nobunaga's army | 670[4] | Defenders from the Itami clan and their families were killed after the capture of Itami Castle. |
| 5 September 1595 | The massacre of Toyotomi Hidetsugu's entire family | Kyoto | Toyotomi Hideyoshi | 39 | Hideyoshi ordered the execution of Hidetsugu's entire family, including children, wives and concubines. |
| Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12–15 April 1638 | Mass beheadings at the final days of the Shimabara revolt | Inside and around Hara Castle, Minamishimabara | Shogunate army | 37,000 | Rebels and sympathizers were beheaded by military forces. Afterwards, the Hara Castle was also burned to the ground. |
| Yoshiwara spree killing | Yoshiwara | Sano Jirōzaemon | ? | Sano Jirōzaemon murdered dozens of prostitutes with a katana in Yoshiwara[5] | |
| Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kawachi Jūningiri | Chihayaakasaka, Minamikawachi District, Osaka[6] [7] | Kumatarō Kido and Yagorō Tani | 13 (including the perpetrators) | Kumatarō Kido and Yagorō Tani killed eleven people before committing suicide. | ||
| March 1st demonstrations | Korea under Japanese rule | Imperial Japanese Army | 7,509 | 15,849 Koreans wounded[8] | ||
| Jeamni massacre | Hwaseong, Chōsen | Imperial Japanese Army | 29 | Killing of Korean civilians inside a church in Hwaseong | ||
| Gando massacre | Jiandao | Imperial Japanese Army | 5,000+[9] | |||
| Shinano River incident | Shinano River | Okura zaibatsu | 100+[10] | Massacre of up to 100 Korean laborers who tried to escape the construction site by the Plant foremen[11] [12] | ||
| Kantō Massacre | Kantō region | Imperial Japanese Army, police and vigilantes | 6,000+ | Multiple incidents, including the Fukuda Village Incident | ||
| Kobe shooting | Kobe | Chinese man | 7-12 (including the perpetrator) | 11 or 7 Japanese were shot to death by a Chinese man in Kobe in revenge for the Jinan incident and then he committed suicide[13] [14] | ||
| 1931 Empress of Canada stabbings | aboard RMS Empress of Canada, off Japan | Graciano Bilas | 2 | 42-year-old Filipino passenger Graciano Bilas killed two people and wounded 29 others with a knife | ||
| Tsuyama massacre | Tsuyama | Mutsuo Toi | 31 (including the perpetrator) | After cutting off electricity to his village, 21-year-old Mutsuo Toi proceeded to go on a late-night killing spree with a shotgun, a katana, and an axe before killing himself, 3 injured | ||
| Chichijima incident | Chichijima, Ogasawara Islands | Imperial Japanese Army | 8 | Japanese soldiers killed eight American airmen on Chichi Jima, in the Bonin Islands, and cannibalized four of them. The ninth, and only one to evade capture, was future U.S. President George H. W. Bush | ||
| Hanaoka incident | Ōdate | Imperial Japanese Army | 418 | 113 prisoners of war executed; 307 also died |
| Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teigin case | Tokyo | Sadamichi Hirasawa | 12 | False verdict suspected | ||
| Mitaka incident | Tokyo | Keisuke Takeuchi | 8 | 20 injured. False verdict suspected |
| Date | Name | Location | Perpetrator | Deaths | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hakamada Incident | Shimizu, Shizuoka | Iwao Hakamada | 4 | False verdict suspected | ||
| Mitsubishi bombing | Tokyo | East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front | 8 | Powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi. Eight killed, 378 injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested May 19, 1975, by Japanese authorities. | ||
| 1975 Aki shooting | Aki, Kōchi Prefecture | Ikuya Hatakeyama | 6 | 31-year-old Ikuya Hatakeyama shoots eight of his neighbours with a 12-gauge shotgun, killing six and critically injuring two | ||
| 26 - 28 January 1979 | Mitsubishi Bank hostage incident | Mitsubishi Bank, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka | Akiyoshi Umekawa | 5 (including the perpetrator) | Akiyoshi Umekawa shot dead four people in a Mitsubishi Bank | |
| Nigishima murders | Nigishima, Kumano, Mie Prefecture | Kazumichi Ikeda | 8 (including the perpetrator) | Farmer Kazumichi Ikeda kills seven members of his family and injures 3 with an ax and a shotgun before killing himself[15] [16] [17] | ||
| Shinjuku bus attack | Shinjuku, Tokyo | Maruyama Hirobumi | 6 | A mentally disturbed man Maruyama Hirobumi throws a bucket of petrol and a lit newspaper into a bus. The ensuing fire killed 6 and injured 14.[18] [19] | ||
| Japan Air Lines Flight 350 | Haneda Airport, Tokyo | Seiji Katagiri | 24 | Flight 350 was on approach to Haneda Airport when the pilot Seiji Katagiri deliberately nose-dived the plane to crash it. The pilot was then subdued by other flight crews, yet the plane remained descending. It then crashed into Tokyo Bay. The pilot who deliberately nose-dived the plane was suffering from mental illness before the incident | ||
| Taneichi murders | Taneich, Iwate | Hidetake Kakuchiyama[20] | 5 | Hidetake Kakuchiyama, a former fishing crew member, murders his wife and 4 children over a divorce dispute in Taneich, Iwate[21] | ||
| 27–28 June 1994 | Matsumoto incident | Matsumoto | Aum Shinrikyo | 8 | Members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult released sarin gas near the homes of several judges who presiding over legal cases involving the cult. 500+ injured[22] | |
| Tokyo subway sarin attack | Tokyo | Aum Shinrikyo | 13 | 6,252 injured | ||
| Wakayama arsenic poison case | Sonobe district of Wakayama, Wakayama | Masumi Hayashi | 4 | Four people are killed and 63 injured after eating curry laced with arsenic at a community festival in Wakayama. Masumi Hayashi, the chief suspect, has been sentenced to death and is currently appealing.[23] | ||
| Ikebukuro massacre | Tokyo | Hiroshi Zota | 2 | 6 injured[24] [25] [26] | ||
| Shimonoseki Station massacre | Shimonoseki | Yasuaki Uwabe | 5 | Yasuaki Uwabe, a former architect, drove a rented car into Shimonoseki Station and hit at least 7 people, two of whom died before the car got stuck. He then proceeded to stab pedestrians at random with a kitchen knife, injuring 4 and killing a further 3. Uwabe was eventually apprehended by a station worker and was arrested shortly after. Uwabe was executed in 2012. | ||
| Setagaya family murder | Setagaya | Unknown | 4 | A Family of four are murdered at their home in suburban Tokyo by an unknown intruder, the case remains unsolved. | ||
| Takefuji Hirosaki branch arson murder case | Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture | Mitsuhiro Kobayashi[27] | 5 | A Former taxi driver Mitsuhiro Kobayash kills 5 employees and hurts 4 during a robbery followed by arson at a Takefuji Corp branch in Hirosaki.[28] [29] | ||
| Ikeda school massacre | Ikeda | Mamoru Takuma | 8 | 37-year-old former janitor Mamoru Takuma entered an elementary school in Osaka, then used a kitchen knife to kill 8 students. He wounded an additional 13 other students and 2 teachers | ||
| Myojo 56 building fire | Shinjuku | Unknown | 44 | Perpetrator never caught. | ||
| Fukuoka family murder case | Higashi-ku, Fukuoka | Wei Wei, Yang Ning and Wang Liang | 4 | Businessman Shinjiro Matsumoto, his wife Chika and two children aged 11 and 8 are murdered in a robbery by three Chinese students who broke into their home and dumped their bodies in Hakata Bay. Two of the three - Yang Ning and Wang Liang – fled to China where they were arrested. Yang was executed and Wang sentenced to life imprisonment. The third, Wei Wei, was arrested in Japan and was held on death row until finally executed in December 2019. | ||
| 18 - 20 September 2004 | Omuta, Fukuoka | Kitamura-gumi | 4 | Mob wife Mami Kitamura murders four people with her husband and two sons. | ||
| 19 - 23 March 2008 | Tsuchiura massacre | Tsuchiura, Ibaraki | Masahiro Kanagawa | 2 | 7 injured[30] [31] | |
| Akihabara massacre | Chiyoda | Tomohiro Katō | 7 | 10 injured | ||
| Osaka movie theater fire[32] [33] | Osaka | Kazuhiro Ogawa[34] | 16 | |||
| 2010 Habikino shooting | Iichan bar, Habikino, Osaka Prefecture | Yasuhisa Sugiura | 4 (including the perpetrator) | |||
| Etajima stabbings | Etajima, Hiroshima | Chen Shuangxi | 2 | 6 Wounded | ||
| 21 – 22 July 2013 | Yamaguchi arson and murders | Mitake | Kosei Homi | 5 | ||
| Sumoto stabbings | Sumoto, Awaji Island, Hyōgo Prefecture | Tatsuhiko Hirano | 5 | Tatsuhiko Hirano stabs five neighbors with a knife in two separate homes in Sumoto, Awaji Island[35] [36] [37] | ||
| Kawasaki building fire | Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture | Unknown | 11 | 11 people died and 17 were seriously injured in an arson attack on 2 buildings[38] | ||
| Sagamihara stabbings | Sagamihara | Satoshi Uematsu | 19 | 26 injured | ||
| 5 - 6 June 2017 | Ogori murders | Ogori, Fukuoka | Mitsuru Nakata | 3 | A Former police officer Mitsuru Nakata kills his wife and two children[39] | |
| Komatsu family murder | Hitachi, Ibaraki | Hirobumi Komatsu | 6 | Hirobumi Komatsu killed his wife and five children by stabbing, he then set the bodies on fire.[40] | ||
| 31 March - 1 April 2018 | Hioki murders | Hioki, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu | Tomohiro Iwakura | 5 | Tomohiro Iwakura Kills Four Members of His Family and a Neighbor by Strangulation[41] [42] | |
| 25 - 26 November 2018 | Takachiho Murders | Takachiho, Nishiusuki District, Miyazaki Prefecture | Masahiro lihoshi[43] [44] | 7 (including the perpetrator) | Masahiro lihoshi stabs his family and friend to death before committing suicide by jumping from a bridge[45] [46] | |
| Kawasaki stabbings | Tama ward of Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture | Ryuichi Iwasaki | 3 (including the perpetrator) | 18 injured | ||
| Kyoto Animation arson attack | Kyoto | Shinji Aoba | 36 | 33 injured[47] | ||
| Osaka building fire | Osaka | Morio Tanimoto (suspect) | 27 (including the perpetrator) | 27 people are killed and 1 are injured during an arson attack at a medical clinic in Osaka | ||
| Nagano Attack | Nagano | Masanori Aoki | 4 | Attacker stabbed 2 women dead, then shot 2 responding police officers.[48] |