Since the criminal case in France had been closed and the court records were not made available to the Japanese authorities, Sagawa was not again put on trial and spent the rest of his life in freedom.
While this was widely criticized as an example of obstruction of justice, he became a minor celebrity in Japan and made a living through the public's interest in his crime.
[3] In a 2011 interview with Vice, Sagawa reported that, as a youth, he committed bestiality on his dog and experienced cannibalistic desires for women.
[citation needed] At the age of 24, while attending Wako University in Tokyo, Sagawa followed a tall German woman home, and then broke into her apartment while she was sleeping.
[2] 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.
"[3] On 11 June 1981, Sagawa, then 32, invited his Sorbonne classmate Renée Hartevelt, a Dutch woman, to dinner at his apartment at 10 Rue Erlanger, under the pretext of translating poetry for a school assignment.
[2] After a visit by the author Inuhiko Yomota, Sagawa's account of the murder and its aftermath was published in Japan under the title In the Fog.
[2] Sagawa's subsequent publicity and macabre celebrity likely contributed to the French authorities' decision to deport him to Japan, where he was immediately committed to Matsuzawa Hospital in Tokyo.
[9] In 1992, Sagawa appeared in Hisayasu Sato's exploitation film Uwakizuma: Chijokuzeme (Unfaithful Wife: Shameful Torture) as a sado-sexual voyeur.
[citation needed] In 2005, Sagawa's parents died, and he was prevented from attending their funeral but repaid their creditors and moved into public housing.