Within 72 hours of the murderer’s arrest, the filename was scraped by data hoarders and reposted to anonymous image boards. A meme was born—one of pure horror.
In 2004, a 15-year-old high school student known publicly only as "Hitomi" disappeared from a shopping district in Saitama Prefecture. Her body was discovered three weeks later. The subsequent investigation revealed a horrifying chain of events involving a middle-aged businessman she had met through a "dating club" (a legal grey area in Japan at the time). Asw 113 Hitomi
During the investigation, police discovered that the perpetrator had filmed his interactions with Hitomi on a consumer-grade digital camera. He had not distributed the footage widely, but he had uploaded a single, unlisted clip to a peer-to-peer archive under the filename ASW113_Hitomi.avi . Within 72 hours of the murderer’s arrest, the
But what, or who, is ASW 113 Hitomi? And why, decades later, does the name still surface? The "ASW 113" designation refers to a specific catalog number within a now-defunct video sharing platform that operated in Japan during the early 2000s. "Hitomi" was the given name of the victim in a case involving enjo kōsai (compensated dating), kidnapping, and eventual murder. Her body was discovered three weeks later
Next time you see a cryptic filename or a "cursed video" code online, ask yourself: Are you looking for truth, or are you just feeding the ghost?
Note: This subject is highly sensitive and touches on true crime. The following post is written from an analytical, journalistic perspective, focusing on the cultural and legal impact of the case. If you’ve spent any time in the darker corners of internet forums, true crime Reddit threads, or Japanese media analysis circles, you’ve likely seen the code: ASW 113 Hitomi .