Crime Immemorial

In the spring and early summer of 1981, a string of killings in and around Tokyo, Japan shook the nightlife corridors of Shinjuku, especially the neon tangle of Kabukichō. Three women were murdered inside love hotels, each case echoing the last: a couple checks in, the man slips out alone, and staff later discover a victim strangled in a room that—by design—offered privacy, anonymity, and (at the time) very little surveillance.

Police believed the crimes were linked and conducted an intensive investigation, but the suspect was never publicly identified and the series ended as abruptly as it began. A fourth woman survived an attack later that same June—another reason investigators treated the incidents as one connected pattern—yet even that break wasn’t enough to put a name to the killer.

Love hotels thrive on discretion: quick check-ins, minimal questions, private rooms, and a steady flow of guests who often don’t want attention. In 1981, that anonymity cut both ways. According to later reporting, the lack of security cameras (installed more widely afterward) and the reluctance to expose patrons’ identities complicated witness follow-ups and suspect tracking, especially when the offender repeatedly left before paying.

The killer also seemed to understand how staff routines worked: check-out times, room checks, and the way a guest could vanish into Kabukichō’s crowds. In at least two incidents, employees became suspicious because the man exited alone without settling the bill: an odd detail that appears again and again in the record.

The first murder was discovered on the morning of March 20th, 1981, after staff at a love hotel noticed that the guest in room 401 hadn’t checked out and wouldn’t respond to an internal call. When an employee entered, they found a woman dead from strangulation.

Investigators initially identified the victim as a thirty-three-year-old hostess based on identification left behind, but it turned out to be a false name and false age. Later accounts describe her as forty-five, living and working around Kabukichō’s nightlife economy after having left her family years earlier.

Witness accounts and staff observations placed her checking in with a young man during the night; by morning, the man was gone. Reporting on the case also notes a disturbing recurring element that would tie the later murders together: stimulant traces were detected in connection with the crimes, though how the victims ingested the drug—coercion, deception, or consent—remained unclear.

Roughly a month later, on April 25th, a second woman checked into another love hotel with a “salaryman-like” man. Within about an hour, staff saw the man leave alone (again, without paying), prompting an uneasy room check. Inside, the woman was found strangled with pantyhose.

This victim’s identity proved far harder to pin down. Accounts emphasize how little she had on her: a few small personal items (like earrings and sandals) and almost nothing that would reliably establish who she was, suggesting the offender may have taken clothing and belongings. Police created and distributed a portrait poster asking for information, yet she remained unidentified.

As in the first case, investigators reported traces of stimulant components linked to the crime scene or the victim, reinforcing the sense of a repeating method.

On June 14th, a third attack unfolded even more quickly. A man and a young woman checked in during the early evening. Not long after, staff received a call that the guest was leaving. Employees, alert after the earlier murders, moved to check the room and encountered a young man in a hurry who fled without paying. Inside, they found the victim nude with pantyhose wrapped around her neck; she was rushed to a hospital but died soon after.

This victim was identified as a seventeen-year-old from Saitama Prefecture (Kawaguchi City). Japanese accounts describe how investigators reconstructed portions of her movements through items left behind, including references to a library book. An autopsy also found a significant amount of coffee in her stomach, leading police to believe she met the offender at a café before going to the hotel. And again, stimulant traces were detected, keeping the investigative spotlight on a single perpetrator.

Just days later, on June 25th (reported in Japanese sources as an incident cited from a June 27th newspaper), a thirty-year-old hostess was attacked in a love hotel after being approached while alone in an arcade/game center. The man attempted to strangle her; she fought back, and he fled, taking cash from her wallet, and once again leaving without paying. She survived, and police treated this as part of the same series based on the method and circumstances.

It’s the kind of event that should crack a case: a living witness, a recent crime scene, and a suspect who repeats his habits. Yet despite that advantage, no arrest followed.

Witness descriptions painted a vague but consistent picture: a young, well-dressed man, sometimes described as “salaryman-like,” with a round face; in at least some accounts, he wore black-rimmed glasses in later incidents.

One striking point: despite multiple sightings and a surviving victim, sources note that a composite sketch was either not produced or not made widely public in a way that generated a decisive lead.

Japanese sources commonly state that the cases remained officially unsolved and that the statute of limitations for prosecution ultimately expired in the mid-1990s, often cited as 1996.

Decades later, Japan abolished the statute of limitations for murder and certain other capital crimes (and extended time limits for other serious offenses resulting in death). That reform, however, arrived too late to reopen prosecutions for cases already time-barred.

Even without a named offender, the Shinjuku–Kabukichō Love Hotel murders left a mark. They reinforced public fears about Kabukichō’s dangers and helped push the hospitality industry toward more robust security practices, especially broader adoption of surveillance cameras in hotels where anonymity had previously been a selling point.

As of this writing in February 2026, however, it appears unlikely the murders willever be solved.