Editing Issei Sagawa

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{{Villain_Infobox
|image = Issei Sagawa.jpg
|fullname = Issei Sagawa
|alias = Pang<br>The Kobe Cannibal
|origin = Kobe, Japan
|occupation = Writer, actor, public speaker
|goals = Kill and eat someone (successful)
|crimes = [[Murder]]<br>[[Cannibalism]]<br>[[Necrophilia]]<br>[[Bestiality]]<br>Attempted [[rape]]<br>[[Stalking]]<br>
|hobby = Writing books<br>Appearing in documentaries
|type of villain = Psychopathic Cannibal}}
{{Quote|It wasn't like I felt like eating someone every time I was hungry. But you know how you tend to feel a stronger sexual desire when you've eaten a full meal? That's when I would start feeling the urge to eat a girl.|Sagawa talks about his crime in an interview.}}
'''Issei Sagawa''' (April 26<sup>th</sup>, 1949 - November 24<sup>th</sup>, 2022) was a Japanese man who in 1981 killed and cannibalized a Dutch woman named Renée Hartevelt in Paris.<ref name = sagawa></ref> Despite being caught and put on trial, he achieved notoriety for avoiding a prison sentence and remained free until his death. Further disdain towards Sagawa arises from him becoming a minor celebrity in Japan and profiting from his crime.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2018/10/20/issei-sagawa-the-cannibal-who-became-a-folk-hero-in-japan/ Meet the cannibal who became a folk hero in Japan], ''New York Post''</ref>

==Biography==
Issei Sagawa was born on 26 April 1949 in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, to wealthy parents. Sagawa's father, Akira Sagawa, was a businessman who had served as president of Kurita Water Industries, and his grandfather had been an editor for ''The Asahi Shimbun''. Sagawa was born prematurely and reportedly small enough that he could fit in the palm of his father's hand, and immediately developed enteritis, a disease of the small intestine. Sagawa eventually recovered after several injections of potassium and calcium in saline.<ref name = childhood>[https://www.timbercreektalon.com/2021/10/horror-hotspot-the-kobe-cannibal/ Horror Hotspot: The Kobe Cannibal], ''Timber Creek Talon''</ref>

Sagawa's fragile health and introverted personality led to him developing a strong interest in literature. Sagawa first experienced cannibalistic desires while in the first grade, after seeing a male's thigh. In a 2011 interview with Vice, Sagawa reported that as a youth he partook in bestiality with his dog and experienced cannibalistic desires for women.<ref name = childhood></ref> Sagawa attended Wako University and completed a master's degree in English Literature at Kwansei Gakuin University.

At the age of 24, while attending Wako University in Tokyo, Sagawa followed a tall German woman home, then broke into her apartment while she was sleeping. Sagawa's intention was to cannibalize her by slicing off part of her buttocks and sneaking away with a small part of her flesh, but she awoke and, according to Sagawa, thwarted his attack and pushed him to the ground. Sagawa was captured by police and charged with attempted rape, and did not confess his true intentions to authorities. Sagawa's charges of attempted rape were dropped when his father paid a settlement to the victim.<ref name = sagawa>[https://medium.com/crime-scenes/the-kobe-cannibal-how-issei-sagawa-got-away-with-murder-b7bb1e14435c The Kobe Cannibal: How Issei Sagawa got away with murder], ''Medium''</ref>

In 1977, at the age of 27, Sagawa moved to France to pursue a Ph.D. in literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. Sagawa has said that while residing in Paris, "Almost every night I would bring a prostitute home and then try to shoot them, but for some reason my fingers froze up and I couldn't pull the trigger."

On June 11<sup>th</sup>, 1981, Sagawa, then a 32-year-old student of Comparative literature at the Sorbonne Academy, invited classmate Renée Hartevelt to dinner at his apartment under the pretense of translating German poetry for a class he was taking. Upon her arrival, after convincing her to begin reading the poetry, he then shot her in the neck with a rifle while she sat with her back to him at a desk. At that point he began to carry out his plan of eating her. His first attempt to bite into her buttocks met with failure so he proceeded to go out shopping for a butcher knife. She was selected, he has stated, for her health and beauty, those characteristics Sagawa believed he lacked. Sagawa describes himself as a "weak, ugly, and inadequate little man" (he is just under 5 ft (1.52 m) tall) and claims that he wanted to "absorb her energy".

Sagawa said he fainted after the shock of shooting her, but awoke with the realization that he had to carry out his desire to eat her. He did so, beginning with her buttocks and thighs, after having sex with the corpse.<ref name = sagawa></ref> In interviews, he noted his surprise at the "corn-colored" nature of human fat. For two days, Sagawa ate various parts of her body. He described the meat as "soft" and "odorless", like tuna. He then attempted to dump the mutilated body in a remote lake, but was seen in the act and later arrested by the French police who found parts of the deceased still in his refrigerator.<ref name = sagawa></ref>

His wealthy father provided a top lawyer for his defense, and after being held for two years without trial the French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière found him legally insane and unfit to stand trial and ordered Sagawa to be held indefinitely in a mental institution. Following a visit by the author Inuhiko Yomota, Sagawa's account of the murder was published in Japan with the title ''In the Fog''. The subsequent publicity and macabre celebrity of Sagawa likely contributed to the French authorities' decision to have him extradited to Japan. 

Upon arrival in Japan, he was immediately taken to Matsuzawa hospital, where examining psychologists all found him to be sane, stating that sexual perversion was the sole motivation for the murder. However, Japanese authorities found it to be legally impossible to hold him, because the French government refused to release court documents (which remain secret), to Japan, claiming that the case was already dropped in France. As a result, Sagawa checked himself out of the mental institution on August 12<sup>th</sup>, 1986; and has been a free man ever since. Sagawa's freedom has been questioned and criticized by many.<ref>[https://newarena.com/story/japanese-cannibal-remains-out-of-jail-after-legal-loop-hole/2/ Japanese Cannibal Remains Out Of Jail After Legal Loop Hole], ''New Arena''</ref>

In an interview with ''Vice'' magazine in 2011, he said that being forced to make a living while being known as a murderer and cannibal was a terrible punishment. In 2013 he was hospitalized from a cerebral infarction which permanently damaged his nervous system. Since being released he has been under the full-time care of his brother.<ref name = reflection>[https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/paris-cannibal-sagawa-reminisces-over-his-grisly-crime 'Paris Cannibal' Sagawa reminisces over his grisly crime], ''Japan Today''</ref>

In a 2015 interview, he voiced some regret over his murder of Hartevelt, describing her as "gentle".<ref name = reflection></ref>

Issei Sagawa died due to complications of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo, on 24 November 2022, at the age of 73.<ref>[https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k8jnb/japan-cannibalism-murder-issei-sagawa Japanese Cannibal Who Got Away With Eating and Raping a Dutch Woman Is Dead], ''VICE World News''</ref><ref>[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/12/02/national/issei-sagawa-dies/ Issei Sagawa, Japanese cannibal who walked free, dies at 73], ''The Japan Times''</ref>
==References==
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