Five years after Sagamihara Stabbings, accounts emerge of killer’s apparently diligent behaviour as care worker

By Barrier Free Japan with extracts translated from Huffington Post Japan

July 27 2021

July 26 2021 marked the five year anniversary of what is now often referred to as the ‘Sagamihara Stabbings’, when in the early hours of July 26th 2016, Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the ‘Tsukui Yamayuri En’ or ‘Tsukui Lily Garden’ care home for people with disabilites, killed 19 residents with disabilites and injured at least 26 others. Uematsu was later sentenced to death by the Yokohama District Court. Uematsu talked about how people with disabilities could cause ‘only misery’.

On July 26 2021, a Huffington Post Japan blog article was published that describes Uematsu behaviour at the care home prior to the stabbing to be quite different to his behavior described at the trial.

For example, according to the article Uematsu very diligently helped a male resident having an epileptic seizure in a bath in March 2015. Here are some of the notes he made, as reported in the article:

“14:53 I confirmed a seizure in the bathtub and he was drowning, so I carried him immediately. He was having a rigid convulsion for about 20 seconds. After weakening, I moved him to the dressing room and 14:55…(stopping the seizure…Insert a suppository) 15:00 Vital check is performed. Kt (body temperature) 37.5, BP (blood pressure) 125/68, P (pulse) 110, then put him to lie down in his room. Nursing section. There is an instruction to measure the temperature at 18:00.” (Remarks in parentheses are from the original Japanese Huffington Post blog article)