The panic against otaku had existed in Japan since the arrest of Tsutomu Miyazaki in Tokyo in 1989, and was heightened by the arrest of Kaoru Kobayashi in Osaka a year earlier. Similar to Torres, both Miyazaki and Kobayashi had raped and murdered young girls around Kinoshita's age and were well-publicized as otaku, although there was little evidence of them being otaku.
Since Tsutomu Miyazaki's arrest in Tokyo in 1989 and Kaoru Kobayashi's arrest in Osaka a year later, Japan has experienced a heightened fear of otaku. Like Torres, both men had sexually assaulted and murdered young girls around Kinoshita's age; they were recognized as otaku figures despite lacking substantial evidence to support this classification.