WORLD> Asia-Pacific
Japanese man turned himself in for stabbing former vice minister
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-23 09:16

TOKYO - A Japanese man has reportedly turned himself in to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department with bloodstained knives Saturday night, claiming he had "stabbed a vice minister," local media reported.

The man, a 46-year-old who gave his name as Tsuyoshi Koizumi, went to the police department in the Kasumigaseki district at around 9:35 p.m. Saturday in a minivehicle, which had a license plate indicating it was a rental car, and was then taken to a police station in Chiyoda Ward for questioning, Kyodo News Agency reported

The police are questioning the man on suspicion of violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law and investigating whether he was linked to murder and stabbing incidents involving two former vice health and welfare ministers.

The man, who is registered as a resident of Saitama City and is about 165 centimeters in height, had a total of eight survival knives with him when he turned himself in to the police. Two of the knives had bloodstains. He also took a pair of sneakers, Kyodo said.

In Saitama City, north of Tokyo, on Tuesday morning, former vice health minister Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, and his wife Michiko, 61, were found dead with stab wounds to their chests at their home. They are believed to have been murdered Monday.

Later on Tuesday, in Tokyo's Nakano Ward, Yasuko Yoshihara, 72, the wife of Kenji Yoshihara, 76, who was also a vice health and welfare minister, was stabbed at the entrance of their home by a man pretending to be from a parcel delivery service. The wife suffered serious wounds while Yoshihara was not at home at the time.

Police believe the serial attacks were deliberately targeted at former vice health ministers and suspected the murder was the same person.

The attacks are suspected to be linked to resentment over the country's pension fiasco which erupted last year, because both Yamaguchi and Yoshihara had served as heads of the former Health and Welfare Ministry's Pension Bureau and also as vice health and welfare ministers.