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A 65-year-old man was arrested for attempted murder on Thursday, accused of stabbing three people, one of whom later died, at a property in Yoshikawa City on Thursday morning.
Saitama police said they received a call just before 10 a.m. from a man, saying that people had been stabbed. Upon arriving at the property, they found a man and a woman in their 60s and a man in his 50s bleeding. All three were taken to hospital, but the woman was later pronounced dead. One of the men was seriously injured but was in stable condition and the other man, who made the call to police, was not seriously injured.
Seiji Shimizu was arrested at the scene for attempted murder and police said they will upgrade one of the charges to murder. Shimizu has admitted to stabbing the trio and said there had been some money problems.
Shimizu, owner of the property which consists of a house and an outhouse, leased the main house to a construction business which used it as accommodation for five of its employees, including the man who made the call to police on Thursday morning. Shimizu had been living with the woman on the second floor of the outhouse for the past five years. The other man, a former employee of the construction business, had moved out of the main house and started living in the outhouse a few days ago, police said.
Police said Shimizu was taken to hospital the day before the incident on Wednesday morning, after one of the residents called for an ambulance, saying that Shimizu was agitated and shaking. Shimizu was sent home after receiving a clean bill of health.
© News reports
24 Comments
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smithinjapan
wow... Yesterday a 65 year old woman, the day before that another stabbing, and now this. Seems like it's at least one fatal stabbing or more/day in Japan these days.
Altria
Haha, the man lived in an outhouse, and a two-story one at that!
sakurasuki
It's only become statistic now.
tasha77
Where have all the good ol' days gone????? The days that when you had a problem with someone you talked about it and either fixed it or had a biffo. Today it is all stabbing and shooting. Cowards who have no heart or no courage carry guns and knives. Lets go back to the good ol' days.....yeah right.....fat chance of that ever happening. Too many cowards who are scared to confront problems in a civilised way.
Disillusioned
The geriatric crime wave continues. Is anybody else alarmed by the amount of serious crimes committed by the blue rinse set in Japan? The government doesn't seem to give sh!t. Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world, but at what cost? The seniors seem to have totally lost the plot! Nearly all of the serious crimes reported are committed by people over 60. The wacko generation!
Mittsu
Not wacko, just so many more oldies in Japan so statistically they predominate in crime stats. Lots of pent up rage at the end of the Japanese dream since the bubble burst.
hoserfella
Heres the Japanese attitude toward mental health in a nutshell. Pat a broken person on the back and say "Gambatte, ne"
OneForAll
"65-year-old man arrested after stabbing rampage in Saitama" outhouse... Poor translation but funny the way it was written. When a Japanese becomes agitated and shaking you know something is going to happen. Poor folks. As for thr outhouse, it is like a servant quarters or garden house, my wife says.
LFRAgain
I think the translators of this article might want to rethink the use of the word "outhouse" to describe an out-lying house, separate from the main building.
An "outhouse" is known as a toilet in some parts of the world. I don't think they meant to convey that one of the men was living in the toilet. Unless he was, in which case, simply "toilet" might be the better word here.
In any case, must have been some money problem to cause this kind of meltdown. Pity to the victims.
Disillusioned
Sorry, gotta disagree with this. In most other countries the majority of crimes are committed by people in their teens, twenties and thirties. The oldies are usually the victims, not the perpetrators. There is something odd with most Japanese senior citizens.
Mittsu
Remeber the sage words of Homer Simpson (or maybe Bart). "Old people are no good at anything" Except stabbing, maybe.
FryingMonkey
It's a grandma stabbin' good time! Time to put the old horse down if ya ask me, you had a good run Shimizu but your time is done.
Orchid64
This is really sad and seems to be another in a trend in Japan these days where angry, frustrated and possibly mentally ill senior citizens are committing crimes. This is a social problem that Japan is going to have to address in a more proactive and constructive manner than simply locking up the perpetrators after the fact.
For starters, they really need to raise the retirement agent to 70 or remove mandatory or conditional retirement at 60. Right now, people who work in salaried positions are told that their choice is the door, or to quit and be rehired at 50% of their previous salary. Such people have little purpose in life and their lives become small and centered around mundane activities and local happenings. It's no wonder they may grow agitated with small problems with neighbors or other problems and blow up. They lose touch with the greater reality.
notimpressed
This hardly warrants being called rampage. More like 'multiple stabbings'.
If anything, this whole country seems to be in the grip of a stabbing rampage.
Dennis Bauer
saitama again. it seems the anger raises together with the summer temperature
bamboohat
Thanks for the advice. I'll watch my back.
GW
wow, I drove there & back from Saitama today, glad I got out alive, with all these people living in outhouses no wonder its become the J-crime-capital
nigelboy
Well it's probably "reported" because it was committed by people over 60.
usaexpat
More nutters on the loose, some people are just a tick away from snapping and when they do watch out.
boboh
This idiot has more than money problems now.
30061015
An agitated shaking second story outhouse dweller with a knife
Living with an outhouse woman five years who wasn't his wife
Some money problems made him stab the trio he said
But only the woman was later pronounced dead
bushlover
Money problems on top of living in an outhouse could really be a cr@ppy situation.
martyman
Maybe the J-cops should use this incident as a lessons learned for future crimes in Saitama. If doctors have a patient that shows signs of being agitated and shaking, they should notify the police immediately.
vultor
A two story outhouse? Bad news for the person sitting under.