The Sayama incident occurred on May 1, 1963, when 16-year-old Yoshie Nakata was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by an unconfirmed individual in Sayama, Saitama, Japan. The incident, in which then-24-year-old Kazuo Ishikawa, a man of disputed guilt in the case, was imprisoned for 31 years, highlighted official discrimination against Japan's burakumin caste. Ishikawa was originally sentenced to death by hanging, but his sentence was commuted after a decade on death row to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. Ishikawa was paroled in 1994, and has been advocating since then to have his convictions overturned.

Sayama is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 January 2021, the city had an estimated population of 149,826 in 69,859 households and a population density of 3100 persons per km². The total area of the city is 45.51 square kilometres (17.57 sq mi).