Sagawa) is a rich and powerful man and found the best lawyer to make excuses for him. Finally, the court held that Sagawa suffered from serious mental illness and was only sent to a mental hospital.
Akira Sagawa claimed that Issei Sagawa was unfit to stand trial in France and tried to extradite him to Japan.
1985, his father successfully took him back to Japan and entered Matsuzawa Hospital in Tokyo. The following year, a Japanese psychiatrist claimed that Sagawa was mentally sound, so he was released. From his return to Japan to his release, the difference was less than 15 months.