Across Asia: Japan

Man, 77, kills entire family

Japanese police yesterday arrested a 77-year-old man suspected of killing his entire family with a hammer, including a 4-year-old granddaughter, a police official said.

Police discovered the bodies after receiving a phone call from a man who reported killing his family.

They rushed to the suspect's house in Kashiwa, east of Tokyo, and found the suspect, Yoshio Kiuchi, slumped on the floor and splattered with blood, the official said.

They also found the bodies of Kiuchi's 4-year-old granddaughter, 75-year-old wife, 49-year-old son and 44-year-old daughter-in-law, he said.

Kyodo News agency said the suspect's wife, Tokiko, was found dead in the kitchen wearing an apron, while his son's family was found on the floor in their pajamas.

12 nabbed for Net threats

Japanese police have arrested a dozen people for posting on the Internet threats to commit mass murder or other crimes in the weeks since seven people were killed in a stabbing rampage in a busy Tokyo shopping district, Kyodo news agency said yesterday, quoting a police survey.

Twenty-five year-old factory worker Tomohiro Kato was arrested on June 8 on suspicion of driving a rental truck into a crowd of shoppers and then knifing passers-by in Tokyo's Akihabara district.

Police have tightened website surveillance and are getting tips from the public after reports that Kato had posted dozens of warning messages on a mobile phone website before the attack.

(China Daily 06/25/2008 page11)