Memorials and ‘Silent Action’ by Disability Rights Groups Mark Ninth Anniversary of Sagamihara Stabbings

From Barrier Free Japan

July 26 2025

Sagamihara, Kanagawa & Kobe, Hyogo – A memorial ceremony commemorating the victims of the 2016 mass stabbing at Tsukui Yamayuri-en, a care facility for people with disabilities, was held on Saturday July 26, marking nine years since the tragedy. The ceremony was organized by the Kanagawa Prefectural Government, Sagamihara City, and the facility’s managing welfare organization, took place from 10:30 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. at the facility in Midori Ward, where 19 residents were killed and 26 injured in one of Japan’s worst mass killings.

The program included speeches from public officials, a moment of silence, and a floral offering at the on-site memorial monument. The ceremony was followed by a press briefing from Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa. Members of the public were also able to pay their respects by offering flowers at the memorial site between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on the same day.

“On that day, our lives were overturned, and it took five years to restore them,” said Kazuma Otsuki, who leads a group of the families of facility users. “We will never forget you all.”

Kyodo reported that Kiyomitsu Nagai (age 55), the director of the facility, stood in front of the memorial altar alongside resident Masanao Shimada (also 55), and solemnly said, “You are, and will always be, irreplaceable.” At the flower offering table, people were seen placing flowers and praying, expressing their resolve: “We will not forget the incident.”

The altar at the memorial was decorated with drawings by residents and folded paper cranes.

Despite the intense summer heat, many people came to participate in the public flower offering. Among them was Kei Maeda (32), a part-time worker who came from outside the prefecture for the second year in a row. He said, “This was an unforgivable crime, and we must not forget it. The mindset of excluding others does not lead to happiness,” as he laid flowers. Junichi Miyoshi (50), who works at a special-needs school in Kakogawa City, Hyōgo Prefecture, said, “These were lives that never should have been taken. I want to pass on the value of those lives to the children I teach.”

Some political action groups also marked the day as a way to highlight injustices against people with disabilities and minority groups in general. In Kobe the group ‘Remember 7.26 Kobe Action’ on July 25 held a ‘silent action’ in Chuo Ward, Kobe with this message:

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“We will not forget the 19 murdered in Tsukui Yamayuri Garden

Do you remember July 26, 2016 when 19 people with disabilities were murdered at the prefectural “Tsukui Yamayuri Garden” facility for the disabled in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture? Since the month after the incident, we are a group of disabled people who have been protesting against disabled discrimination and eugenic ideology.

In spite of our pleas, such a trend is raging now. It shows that people are gaining popularity in elections spreading the baseless scam that foreigners are treated well, women are giving birth, end stage health care is self-existent, and LGBTQ (sexual minority) people don’t exist.

As people with difficulties in life are being directed to attacks minorities, the atmosphere reminiscent of prewar Japan, fascism, and Nazism emerged, is about to cover society. We handicapped people feel it tangible and fear every moment we go outside our homes. Because we know that Nazi-German genocide (mass genocide) started with Operation T4 to eliminate disabled people.

I can’t tolerate those preparing for war trying to seize greater power. The first people to be killed in war are the disabled. With genocide in Palestine, conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Congo, South Sudan, Myanmar, etc, the disabled are the most disastrous.

People with disabilities in the “Tsukui Yamayuri Garden Incident” were killed as being unproductive, being society’s baggage and bringers of misfortune. Together with the disabled, we will continue to raise our voices in protest against discrimination, eugenic ideologies, and violence, with foreign roots, women, sexual minorities, the elderly, minorities, seeking a true society of peace and symbioticism.

Remember 7.26 Kobe Action.”