Killing of Satomi Mitarai

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Sasebo slashing
Okubo Elementary School; the site of the murder (pictured on March 11, 2011)
Location	Okubo Elementary School, Higashiokubocho, Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
Date	June 1, 2004 (2004-06-01)
Attack type	Murder
Weapon	Utility knife
Deaths	1
Victim	Satomi Mitarai, 12
Perpetrator	Girl A, 11

The "Sasebo slashing" (Japanese: 佐世保小6女児同級生殺害事件, Hepburn: Sasebo shōroku joji dōkyūsei satsugai jiken),^[1] also known as the Nevada-tan murder, was the murder of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl, Satomi Mitarai (御手洗 怜美, Mitarai Satomi), by an 11-year-old female classmate referred to as "Girl A" (a common placeholder name used for female criminals in Japan).^[2] The murder occurred on June 1, 2004, at an elementary school in the city of Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture. The murderer slit Mitarai's throat and arms with a box cutter.^[3]

Reactions to the incident included Internet memes^[specify] and a discussions about lowering the age of criminal responsibility in Japan. The killer's name was not released to the press, as per Japanese legal procedures prohibiting the identification of juvenile offenders;^[4] the Nagasaki District Legal Affairs Bureau cautioned Internet users against revealing her photos.^[5] However, members of the Japanese Internet community 2channel read a name on a classroom drawing believed to be made by Girl A, and publicized the name on June 18, 2004.^[5][6]

On June 1, 2004, Girl A murdered her 12-year-old classmate, Satomi Mitarai, in an empty classroom during the lunch hour at Okubo Elementary School in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture.^[7] Girl A returned to her classroom, her clothes covered in blood.^[8] The girls' teacher, who had noticed that both girls were missing, stumbled upon the body and called the police.^[9]

After being taken into custody, Girl A was reported to have confessed to the crime, saying "I am sorry, I am sorry" to police officers.^[10] She spent the night at the police station, often crying, and refusing to eat or drink. Girl A initially mentioned no motive for the killing.^[11] Shortly afterward, she confessed to police that she and Mitarai had quarreled as a result of messages left on the Internet.^[12] Girl A claimed that Mitarai slandered her^[13] by commenting on her weight and calling her a "goody-goody".

On September 15, 2004, a Japanese Family Court ruled to institutionalize Girl A, putting aside her young age because of the severity of the crime.^[14] She was sent to a reformatory in Tochigi Prefecture.^[15] The Nagasaki family court originally sentenced Girl A to two years of involuntary commitment, but the sentence was extended by two years in September 2006, following a psychological evaluation.^[16] On May 29, 2008, local authorities announced that they did not seek an additional sentence.^[17]

Because of her issues with communication and obsessive interests, Girl A was diagnosed after the murder with Asperger syndrome.^[18]

The killing provoked a debate in Japan whether the age of criminal responsibility, lowered from 16 to 14 in 2000 due to the 1997 Kobe child murders, needed to be lowered again.^[19] Girl A was considered to be a normal and well-adjusted child before the incident,^[20] which made the public more anxious.^[21]

Members of the Japanese Diet, such as Kiichi Inoue and Sadakazu Tanigaki, came under criticism for comments made in the wake of the killing.^[22] Inoue was criticized for referring to Girl A as genki (vigorous, lively), a word with positive connotations.^[23] Tanigaki was criticized for referring to the method of killing, slitting of the throat, as a "manly" act.^[24]

Girl A became the subject of an Internet meme on Japanese web communities such as 2channel. She was nicknamed "Nevada-tan" because a class photograph showed a young girl believed to be her wearing a University of Nevada, Reno sweatshirt,^[25] with "-tan" being a childlike pronunciation of the Japanese honorific suffix "-chan", generally used to refer to young girls.

Akio Mori cited this case in support of his controversial "game brain" theory,^[26] which has been criticized as pseudoscience.^[27] Girl A was reported to be a fan of the death-themed flash animation "Red Room",^[28] a claim used in support of the theory. It was also known that Girl A had read the controversial novel Battle Royale and had seen its film adaptation, which centers on young students fighting to the death.^[29]

On March 18, 2005, during the Okubo Elementary graduation ceremony, students were given a graduation album with a blank page in honor of Mitarai's death on which they could put pictures of Mitarai, Girl A, or class pictures containing both girls.^[30] Mitarai was posthumously awarded a graduation certificate, which her father accepted on her behalf. Girl A was also awarded a certificate, as one is required in Japan in order to enter a junior high school and the school believed it would aid her "reintegration into society".^[31]

• Murder of Aiwa Matsuo, a 2014 murder in Sasebo
• 2007 Sasebo shooting, a 2007 mass homicide in Sasebo

• "Japan schoolgirl killer 'sorry'" – BBC News, June 3, 2004
• "現代リスクの基礎知識 第62回〜長崎佐世保女児同級生殺害事件" – Nikkei Business Publications June 10, 2004 article on the murder (in Japanese)