Yoshio Kodaira | |
|---|---|
 Kodaira (in the conical straw hat) being escorted into court during his trial (1947) | |
| Born | 28 January 1905 |
| Died | 5 October 1949 (aged 44) Miyagi Prison, Sendai, Occupied Japan |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Conviction(s) | Murder (8 counts) |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 8+ |
Span of crimes | 2 July 1932 – 6 August 1946 (confessed to at least one additional murder in China in the 1920s) |
| Country | Japan and possibly China |
| State(s) | Tochigi, Tokyo |
Date apprehended | 20 August 1946 |
Yoshio Kodaira (小平 義雄, Kodaira Yoshio, 28 January 1905 – 5 October 1949) was a Japanese serial killer, serial rapist, and war criminal who murdered at least 8 people in the Tokyo and Tochigi Prefecture areas between 1932 and 1946.
Kodaira killed his father-in-law in 1932 and later raped and murdered at least 7 women between 1945 and 1946 by inviting them into forested areas around Tochigi and Tokyo under the guise of giving them food or employment. Kodaira was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing the seven women and executed in 1949. Kodaira is suspected to have killed other people in Japan, and confessed to committing war crimes in China in the 1920s. However, the exact number of his victims is unknown.