Comments

Posts

Issei Sagawa: Interview With a Cannibal

VBS.TV meets Issei Sagawa, a man who murdered and ate a Dutch woman in Paris back in 1981. Sagawa talks about the act of murder he committed, and how he became a free man after being deported to Japan and spending a few years in a mental hospital [warning: Not Safe For Work]:

According to reports, Issei uttered, “I killed her to eat her flesh,” when police raided his home, whereupon they found bits of Renne still in his fridge.

Sagawa was declared insane and unfit for trial and was institutionalized in Paris. His incarceration was to be short, however, as the French public soon grew weary of their hard-earned francs going to support this evil woman-eater, and Issei was promptly deported. Herein followed a bizarre and seemingly too convenient set of legal loopholes and psychiatric reports that led doctors in Japan declaring him “sane, but evil.”

On the August 12, 1986, Sagawa checked himself out of Tokyo’s Matsuzawa Psychiatric hospital, and has been a free man ever since.

You can watch Part 2 of the interview here.

—

Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

37 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - November 24, 2010 at 9:23 am

Categories: Odd / Strange Tags:

Do Not Want

ugh ugh ugh

I didn’t even bother to watch this, because I don’t want to see anymore of that sick motherfucker. The fact that he’s free and became a celebrity is just disgusting.

ag23total

i totally agree
it sickens me that he talks about murder like it’s nothing…
it really really sickens me
and the fact that japanese people take pictures with him- with smiles on their faces and peace signs -is more disgusting

http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

“I didn’t even bother to watch this, because I don’t want to see anymore of that sick motherfucker. The fact that he’s free and became a celebrity is just disgusting.”

I hope you feel the same way with the notoriety and infamy Charles Manson, Sam Berkowitz, Jeffery Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacey have received.

“i totally agree
it sickens me that he talks about murder like it’s nothing…
it really really sickens me
and the fact that japanese people take pictures with him- with smiles on their faces and peace signs -is more disgusting”

Of course he’s going to talk about murder like it’s nothing; he’s obviously insane.

Sheesh people, get off your moral high horses and realize the same s*** happens in the west.

Do Not Want

First of all, all of the people you mentioned are in jail.

Secondly, there is a difference between infamy and fame. Don’t even try to pretend that how Sagawa is treated in Japan is anything comparable to how murders are treated in the west. Charles Manson hasn’t been ask to write reviews of current pop music. Jeffery Dahmer never wrote best selling books about other murders. Hell, even OJ, isn’t welcomed as a guest star and commentator on talk shows.
flowby

Senor – who has mentioned anything about east or west?

Have you got a guilt-com?

The depraved acts of sagawa cross all boundaries.

Why he is still given air time is beyond my comprehension – unless of course the real life macabre is what rattles many broadcasters / viewers minds – like hyenas to carrion.
it

not once did they note anything about the west being better…
they’re just pointing out this guy’s a piece of crap.
you have some serious nationalism issues buddy.
Jordan

Senor is the only one here on a high horse.
http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

“Secondly, there is a difference between infamy and fame. Don’t even try to pretend that how Sagawa is treated in Japan is anything comparable to how murders are treated in the west. Charles Manson hasn’t been ask to write reviews of current pop music. Jeffery Dahmer never wrote best selling books about other murders. Hell, even OJ, isn’t welcomed as a guest star and commentator on talk shows.”

Sam Berkowitz has become a “Born again” Christian and has taken part in sermon videos, and apparently has quite the following with some fundies. Both John Wayne Gacey and Charles Manson have produced art in prison that fetch high prices outside of prison walls with murder memorabilia enthusiasts.

In today’s world infamy and fame are pretty much the same; don’t kid yourselves. Celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Eminem, and even Schnooky are infamous for shocking polite society and as a result have become famous.

JeanRob

He’s not the only evil guy on the loose.
What is disgusting is how he is celebrated in Japan.
Is there a cultural reason behind this?

KQ

Where and who celebrates him?
I don’t buy what you say.

JeanRob

Maybe “celebrating” is not the correct word. But don’t you think making an interview is giving him attention he doesn’t “deserve”?
I know that this could be a way of better understanding why he did that, but the guy doesn’t seem to feel remorse at all. He has published books, given many interviews and seems to enjoy it. That disturbs me. Especially when you compare it to France, where a famous singer killed his girlfriend “by accident”, spent years in jail, and is now forbidden by law to talk about the matter in any public way. He’s not allowed to write any song, book or anything about it. If he talks about it on radio, tv, newspaper or elsewhere in public, he’ll face severe consequences.

You understand why it’s bothering me? I’m not mad or anything, I just don’t find this tasteful.

Soso

VBS.TV is American, you idiot.
JeanRob

So, because this particular interview is for US tv, it implies that he has never been interviewed or praised in Japan by some wacky people?
Man, I’m so stupid. Thanks for the enlightenment.
As a reward you can continue insulting me.

joebibo

Dude have you seen the second part2 a mangaka asked him to draw a manga, and he was asked to shoot a porn movie, and he wrote 30 or so books!!! inn words “THATS ALOT OF BOOKS!” wtf is that if not celebrating???

Disgusted

I hope Japan has vigilantism so that someone destroys this scum.

dadasadsads

No way, usually the psychos attack innocent and the others are so law obeying people so it’s never gonna happen.

somegirl

wow, long time since I heard of him again. First time I was aware of him was from listening to the Rolling Stones ’82 song Too Much Blood. “A friend of mine was this Japanese. He had a girlfriend in
Paris. He tried to date her in six months and eventually she
said yes. You know he took her to his apartment, cut off her
head. Put the rest of her body in the refrigerator, ate her
piece by piece. Put her in the refrigerator, put her in the
freezer. And when he ate her and took her bones to the Bois de
Boulogne, by chance a taxi driver noticed him burying the
bones. You don’t believe me? Truth is stranger than fiction.
We drive through there every day. “
Glyndwr

I see the intellectual heavyweights are out again this bright and sunny morning …
Rob A

This dude’s freaky to the max, and never should have seen daylight again.

Even if he’s just in a mental hospital, he should have frickin’ stayed there.
ryuugakusei

The four serial killers you mentioned were all imprisoned and only one or two is still alive. I think what DNW and a lot of people find disgusting is that he’s free.

Aside from his harem of followers, I don’t think many people would be excited about Manson being let loose.

keiko

The fatal mistake the four serial killers made was that they did not eat their victims.

paraselenee

Uh, yeah they did. Jeffrey Dahmer is known for eating all of his victims. Like, that’s his thing. Dahmer started killing in ’78 and it took until ’91 for them to finally catch him. His fatal mistake was that he was trying to kill and eat more people, unlike Issei who just killed the one (but is still crazy as hell).

Piglet

This is obviously a big failure of the Japanese justice system. He was extradited from France under the assumption he would pay for his crime in his home country (understandably). However, his father was able to influence the Japanese justice system and he was released shortly after being put in a psychiatric institution.
This guy is without a doubt a danger for society (he never repented, he has deep issues that are not resolved). I can understand he would spend time in a psychiatric institution instead than jail, but this is UNBELIEVABLE that he could be a free man today.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Sounds like the French justice system did nothing to make sure he’d pay for his crime.

From the Wikipedia entry:

His wealthy father provided a top lawyer for his defense, and after being held for two years without trial the French judge Jean-Louis Bruguières found him “obviously” legally insane and unfit to stand trial and ordered Sagawa to be held indefinitely in a mental institution.

More:

Then, in 1982, almost two years after the murder of Renée Hartevelt, Judge Bruguiéres announced that in his opinion, anybody prepared to kill and eat someone could not possibly be mentally sound. In fact, he declared that such an act constituted insanity. Bruguiéres believed that Sagawa had been suffering from advanced “dementia” and ordered him confined indefinitely to the Henri Colin Asylum for the criminally insane. There would be no trial.

Having clamoured for details of anything to do with the internationally recognised case, the press went into overdrive, lambasting the French legal system as much as Bruguiéres’ own decision. How could this heinous killer, who had so ruthlessly dispatched and mangled a beautiful young girl, purely to satiate his own needs, be spared a trial? It beggared belief, and the greater world seemed to agree.

[...]

So as not to cause outrage by simply turning him loose at the airport, Sagawa was first taken to Matsuzawa hospital. There, voluntarily, he submitted to being placed in a private wing of the institution and examined by doctors. No one made him feel welcome. A phalanx of mental health professionals each found him to be sane, stating that sexual perversion alone had led to the murder – in other words, they thought Issei Sagawa was evil. The man, they unanimously agreed, belonged in prison.

Following an attempt to gain pertinent paper work from Judge Bruguiéres, which was refused, the Japanese legal system could not pursue Sagawa.

Sagawa should be rotting in a French prison right now.

Joe

No. I’d go along with the judge and say that anyone who kills another human being in order to eat them is quite clearly insane. It might not satisfy certain people’s lust for revenge, but it seems pretty obvious to me.
Piglet

There are clear flaws in the French system as you can see. But as you know, under the French law, any person considered as insane cannot be judged. This particular clause is the topic of much debate in France, even nowadays. I don’t know how the Japanese system works either but I assume there is also a similar special treatment for insane inmates.
Under the French system, he should have spent time in a psychiatric institution under surveillance (because he is unfit for life in the society), as reported in your quote: “ordered him confined indefinitely to the Henri Colin Asylum for the criminally insane.”
The assumption was that a similar decision would be taken on the Japanese side. But maybe the Justice system in Japan does not have the power to force the criminally insane to be locked in special institutions (he apparently went to such places on his free will, unlike in France).
I didn’t know the fact that the French judge refused to send some paper work, this is clearly a major mistake.
I don’t know if Sagawa should be in a prison right now, but he should definitely not be a free man.
Concerned Filipino

But since he isn’t in France anymore, shouldn’t he be rotting in a Japanese prison instead? Or even better, dead – since isn’t Japan one of only two developed countries that still practices the death penalty?

What is even more amusing is how the Japanese mental health professionals all unanimously agreed that Sagawa was fully aware of his actions and belonged in prison.

So…why isn’t he in prison?

Is it because they could not secure the relevant paperwork from the French judge? James, do you expect us to believe that Japan needed France’s permission to go after a Japanese citizen?

Sheesh.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

But since he isn’t in France anymore, shouldn’t he be rotting in a Japanese prison instead? Or even better, dead – since isn’t Japan one of only two developed countries that still practices the death penalty?

Sure, he should be in Prison, or should have faced the death penalty. But how we can argue that a Japanese court should have tried him for murder? The French courts have legal jurisdiction over crimes that occur in France. The French courts decided he should not be tried for murder.

I’m pretty sure that a Japanese court cannot try and sentence somebody to death for a murder they committed in another country (especially when the legal authorities in that country already arrested, investigated, and decided not to convict the criminal). It sounds like the best one could have expected from the Japanese courts was some kind of order to keep him locked up because of the danger he posed to other people.

Is it because they could not secure the relevant paperwork from the French judge? James, do you expect us to believe that Japan needed France’s permission to go after a Japanese citizen?

The crime was committed in France and it makes sense that Japanese authorities would require official documents from the French investigation and legal decision if they wanted to keep Sagawa locked up on the basis of what happened in France. I’m willing to change my view should some other evidence be presented. ( So far, I’ve just seen vague statements implying that Sagawa’s rich father must have surely bought out the Japanese courts. )
Concerned Filipino

Yes, I forgot to mention the possible influence of Sagawa’s industrialist father, there’s also that. Of course, that doesn’t make the Japanese justice system look any better.

From what you’ve said, then, a combination of his father’s influence and technicalities kept him from being punished for his actions. Is that right?

He wasn’t convicted in France because the French justice system believed he was insane. But the Japanese believed he was sane, and yet they still didn’t convict him.

I would say that almost anyone we ask would say that he should be either imprisoned or executed for what he did. One does not even need a law degree to see that. I guess this is just another example of what is legal not being the same as what is moral.

Japanese law enforcement could have at least put him in jail after he checked himself out of the mental hospital (assuming, as the Japanese did, that he is sane). But they didn’t even do that.

Note that I myself, even after watching the video, have not yet come to any conclusions as to whether he is sane or not. But since that is what the Japanese authorities themselves believed, that’s what I’m going with.

So here we have a person who, beyond all reasonable doubt, killed and then ate a fellow human being. He was judged by professionals to be sane and aware of his actions. Yet, all that ever happened to him was that he was confined in mental institutions. He never spent time in prison. He checked himself out of the institution, and now lives a free man. He appears to show no remorse or desire to make amends for his actions. He even enjoys “minor celebrity” status (to quote Wikipedia) in Japan.

I think it would be an understatement to call this a travesty.

Charles Bronson

Its maddening that this creep is free, but LOL at the outrage of a small sect of people who treat him as some weird pseudo-celebrity or randoms that take pictures with him and shit. You’re deluded if you think Charles Manson wouldn’t get the same kind of attention here in US. That guy releases art and music from jail and people buy that shit, probably the same people who would follow him around and cast him in their shitty experimental films. And as far as random morons taking photos with the guy, yeah, it would happen with Manson to. I can definitely see some collage douchebags or people who think they’re being funny doing that. Get off the “OMG JAPAN IZ SO WEIRD” trip.
joebibo

actually i request to delete this post on this site, it harms the good image of the site, and gives that asshole one more slot to show of himself…

vernon

Hey, there is nothing wrong with this post. At least we can learn what is like to be a cannibal.

joker2nice

after watching both parts 1 & 2 I can honestly say that that was the MOST disturbing piece of film I’ve ever seen. I’m a huge fan of Takashi Miike & most J-shock films so for me to say that its the most disturbing film I’ve ever seen is saying a lot. Previously I would have said that Miike’s Visitor Q was the most disturbing but now that is no longer the case. Obviously Visitor Q is a movie but since this guy is alive & walking around some where really makes my skin crawl. What shakes me up the is at the end of the interview he says sexual release was his only way of subduing his cannibalistic urges. He then goes on to state that he is now impotent & worries he will no longer be able to fight his urges for human flesh. Please someone in japan keep on an eye on him or lock him up or the next victim is on your head…
this is just wrong

if his father wasn’t that rich…

end of story.
edfewfwef

if his father was that richm why he lived in such a shitty small appartment? and hes all broke now?
Ferg.

Oh wow, he lives a couple of stops away from my last house.
awesome

He was crazy. It was a problem he had. But instead of ignoring it he settled it. Its like one of you guys if you like sommeone you dont tell them. But if you do tell them then that means you killed the person. He was just brave enough to do what he felt like. Yes it was bad and he knew it waas bad but he just did what his mind was telling him.

Issei Sagawa: Interview With a Cannibal

Recent Comments

Further Reading

South Korean TV Erases Japanese Flag From H-IIA Rocket

Short Film: “Regular Days” in Saga Prefecture

More Vandalism: Hair Removed From Sazae-san Character Statue

Videos: Solar Eclipse Over Japan

Japanese H-IIA Rocket Carries South Korean Satellite into Space

Takeshi Kitano Compares Homosexuality to Bestiality?

Detective Conan Statues Vandalized

BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Photo: Tommy Lee Jones as General Douglas MacArthur

Tokyo Disney Resort Allows Gay Weddings

Categories

Subscribe

Japan Blogs

Korea Blogs

Linkroll

Other Asia Blogs