Bio

Tsukasa Kanda was born in 1971 in Japan. By 2007, Kanda was 36 years old and worked as a salesman for The Asahi Shimbun. He was from Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. Around this time, he became connected with men who were looking for quick money through crime.

The crime began after Kenji Kawagishi, an unemployed man living in a van, posted a message on an underground cellphone website seeking partners for robbery. Kanda, Yoshitomo Hori, and another man, Yūichirō Hondō, responded. They first discussed robbing a wealthy pachinko player, but that plan failed.

On August 24, 2007, Kanda, Kawagishi, and Hori met again in Nagoya. Kanda suggested that they abduct and rob a woman walking alone, then kill her to prevent her from reporting them. Hori and Kawagishi agreed.

Murder Story

On the evening of August 24, 2007, Tsukasa Kanda, Kenji Kawagishi, and Yoshitomo Hori drove around Nagoya in Kawagishi’s van looking for a woman to rob. Around 10:00 p.m., they saw Rie Isogai walking alone in the Jiyūgaoka area of Chikusa Ward, Nagoya. Hori approached her while pretending to ask for directions, then forced her into the van.

Inside the van, the men restrained Isogai with handcuffs, threatened her with knives, and demanded her money and ATM cards. They drove her to a parking lot in Aisai, where they forced her to reveal her ATM PIN. She gave them a false number.

Just after midnight, Kawagishi attempted to rape Isogai but was stopped by Kanda and Hori. The situation escalated when Isogai tried to escape. The men then decided to kill her. Around 1:00 a.m. on August 25, Kanda wrapped packing tape around her head to smother her. When she was still alive, he struck her head with a hammer repeatedly while the other two men choked her with a rope.

After killing her, the men dumped her body in a forest in Mizunami, Gifu Prefecture, around 4:00 a.m. They then tried to withdraw money from her bank account but failed because she had given them the wrong PIN. They divided the cash found in her handbag and talked about robbing and killing more women later that same day.

Later on August 25, Kawagishi contacted police and confessed. Police found Isogai’s body based on his information and arrested Kanda, Hori, and Kawagishi on August 26, 2007.

The trial began at the Nagoya District Court on September 25, 2008. All three men admitted involvement in the robbery and murder, but they argued over who had led the killing. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for all three.

On March 18, 2009, the court sentenced Kanda and Hori to death. Kawagishi received life imprisonment because his confession helped police arrest the others. The court found that Kanda had played a leading role in the murder and that the crime was extremely cruel, even though there was one victim.

Kanda initially appealed, but he withdrew his appeal without his attorney’s consent. His death sentence became final on April 13, 2009. Hori’s death sentence in this case was later reduced to life imprisonment, while Kawagishi’s life sentence was upheld. Tsukasa Kanda was executed by hanging at Nagoya Detention House on June 25, 2015.