Photo/Illutration The shoreline of Hirogawa, Wakayama Prefecture, where the bodies of two men were found in 2020 (Tomoki Miyasaka)

OSAKA—Almost five years after two corpses washed ashore on a lonely beach, a self-proclaimed fortuneteller and her acolyte have been arrested on suspicion of convincing the two men to kill themselves—by walking into the sea together.

The Osaka prefectural police announced on March 11 the arrest of Yoshie Hamada, 62, who calls herself “the creator,” and a 59-year-old Tokyo woman.

They are being held in connection with the deaths of two men, one in his 60s and the other in his 50s. Their bodies were found along the shoreline in Hirogawa, Wakayama Prefecture, on Aug. 1, 2020, bound at the wrist to one another by a microphone cord.

According to investigative sources, around 2008 the men discovered Hamada’s website, which advertised mystical consultations about personal problems.

After the men became acquainted with Hamada, Osaka police believe she gained significant influence over them and convinced them to commit suicide by drowning.

Investigative sources said Hamada told the two men to kill themselves to cleanse all evil from the people they knew.

An autopsy concluded that the two men died of drowning. The Wakayama prefectural police that handled the case found no evidence of foul play and determined the deaths were suicides.

However, the case took a turn in May 2024 when an Osaka man consulted local police.

He claimed to have been extorted by Hamada after she read his fortune. He also told police that Hamada was involved in the deaths of two men in Wakayama.

Osaka police launched an investigation after consulting the Wakayama police about the two deaths in 2020.

On Jan. 28, Osaka police arrested Hamada and three others on suspicion of extorting the Osaka man.

Hamada was indicted on March 11 on the extortion charge due to suspicions that she threatened the Osaka man into giving her his entire life savings—about 80 million yen ($540,000).

In the course of that investigation, Hamada told police that she and the Tokyo woman had gone to the Hirogawa shore with the two drowned men—planning that all four of them would die in the sea together.

The Tokyo woman told police that she had obeyed Hamada’s instructions and took the two men to the shore.

Osaka police believe Hamada had convinced all three to obey her without question.

Investigative sources said the man in his 60s who died in Wakayama was a devout believer in Hamada’s fortunetelling and had given her not only his salary, but the gains from the sale of real estate he had inherited from his parents.

Hamada is also suspected of conspiring with a 47-year-old Osaka woman to fake that man’s suicide note and submit it to the Wakayama police to cover up her role in the two deaths.

Hamada and her accomplice have been arrested on suspicion of falsifying personal documents.

According to sources, in the course of the extortion investigation Hamada told Osaka police that she faked the suicide note to “disguise her actions” regarding the two dead men in Wakayama.

The Wakayama prefectural police told The Asahi Shimbun that its investigation following the deaths of the two men was conducted appropriately.

(This article was written by Satoshi Tazoe and Tomoki Miyasaka.)

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