Retired Japanese government official ‘admits stabbing son to death’

Media reports father worried offspring might commit atrocity similar to recent attack on schoolchildren at Tokyo bus stop

A former top Japanese government official has been arrested in his son’s killing, police said on Monday, though they declined to comment on local media reports saying the retiree told investigators he had feared his reclusive son might harm others.

Tokyo police said Hideaki Kumazawa, 76, was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of stabbing to death his 44-year-old son Eiichiro.

Police sent Mr Kumazawa to prosecutors on Monday, seeking his indictment.

The incident comes days after a man described as a social recluse – known in Japan as “hikikomori” – stabbed a number of schoolchildren at a bus stop outside Tokyo, killing two people before killing himself. Another 17 people were wounded, mostly schoolgirls.

Mr Kumazawa, a retired agricultural vice minister, told investigators that he stabbed his son fearing he may harm others as in the earlier case, according to Japan’s NHK public broadcaster.

NHK said police were told that Mr Kumazawa’s son returned to live with his parents last month, and the family have since frequently quarrelled.

The father told police that he was often verbally and physically abused by his son, the report said.

Mr Kumazawa told police that his son got upset about the noise coming from a nearby elementary school during an athletic event on Saturday and the two argued, NHK said.

Mr Kumazawa told investigators that he thought he had to do something so that his son would not cause harm to the others, it reported.

Tokyo police declined to comment on the reports. It was unclear whether Mr Kumazawa had a lawyer.

Last week’s attack in Kawasaki has highlighted growing concern about “hikikomori”, though rights groups and experts have cautioned that the crime should not be easily linked to the man being a social recluse.

A government survey in March showed that Japan now has an estimated 610,000 “hikikomori” aged from 40 to 64, with the majority of them men and many still taken care of by their parents.

Kawasaki city officials have said that an uncle and aunt of the man in the knifing spree there had turned to the city’s mental health and welfare centre more than a dozen times since 2017, expressing concern about their nephew’s reclusive tendencies and how he might react when people come to care for them in their home.

Associated Press