On 17 October 1992, a sixteen-year-old exchange student from Nagoya put on a white suit, picked up a camera and went to a Halloween party in Louisiana. He knocked on the wrong door.
A man came out of the carport with a .44 Magnum and shouted one word: “Freeze.” Yoshihiro Hattori, two months into his English, kept walking towards him and said, “We’re here for the party.” He was shot once in the chest and died within minutes. A jury acquitted the homeowner of manslaughter in about three hours.
Yoshi’s parents answered with a petition signed by more than one and a half million people in Japan, and a fund that still brings American teenagers to live in Japan every year. Last October, someone left ten million yen wrapped in newspaper on their garden table, with a note asking that it go to the fund.
This Halloween Special episode pairs his story with the Namahage, the masked gods who come banging on doors in northern Japan every New Year’s Eve, carrying knives and roaring for the crying children, and are welcomed in with sake. The ritual only works if the person behind the door recognises what’s coming up the path.
So I’ll put it to you mates: a stranger is moving fast towards your door at night, carrying something you can’t make out. You have two seconds. What do you need to see?
This is Candle 019 of Hyakumonogatari: one hundred Japanese true crime cases, each paired with the myth that shares its shape. Hosted by the Tale Teller.
Explicit Content Note: Discusses the shooting death of a teenager.
SOURCES
• Sakigake Shimpo, 2026: the anonymous ¥10 million gift to the YOSHI Fund
• Jiji Press, Oct 2022: 30th anniversary, classmates and the petition
• NextShark: the trial, verdict and civil judgment
• Tales from the Underworld: trial testimony and civil case details
• Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: Namahage Museum interpretation text
• Nippon.com: “Supernatural Visitors in Wintry Northern Japan”
Thank you so much for your support and love!
Part of our guide: Japanese True Crime Cases
Support the Tale Teller
Enjoying the stories? If you’d like to help keep the candles lit and the tales coming, you can support the show on Patreon.
