A senior member of the staff at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto has been arrested for the murder of a co-worker, police said Sunday.
The suspect, identified as 59-year-old Yuichi Amano, is the deputy head of the Education and Research Promotion Center. Amano is accused of killing 36-year-old co-worker Koji Arakawa, who sustained multiple stab wounds to his chest in an attack that took place outside his home at around 11:55 p.m. on Sept 20, Fuji TV reported.
According to police, Arakawa had asked Amano to stop stalking a female co-worker, believed to be Arakawa's girlfriend. Police say that the warning may have provoked Amano, whom they believe was already jealous of Arakawa.
During police questioning, Amano was quoted as saying that he disposed of the murder weapon as he fled the scene of the crime. Police said that Amano has confessed to the crime and has expressed remorse for his actions, Fuji reported.
© Japan Today
24 Comments
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Vernie Jefferies
Received multiple stabs outside his own home. Looks like the stalker became the stalkee.
Virtuoso
Anybody who says the victim should have taken his problem to the police first doesn't know Japan.
chooch
Vernie:
The murder victim asked the stalker to cease his stalking. The stalker remained the stalker until the end.
Ramzel
Chooch's comment is correct.
Amano asked Arakawa to stop stalking his girlfriend/friend and thus things erupted.
Moderator
Please note it was the other way round. Arakawa asked Amano to stop stalking the woman.
tmarie
Did they go to the police and report the stalking? Much more to the story I think than is being given.
Stupid oyaji who didn't get his way. RIP Arakawa. You seem to be a good man who was right to tell this jerk to leave this women alone.
Tawnchan
Vernie...
Amano (killer/stalker) Arakawa (victim.. killed outside of his(Arakawa) home.
Vernie Jefferies
Thanks for clearing that up for me Tawnchan. I lost track of the boyfriend's name in the article. Going back to my celebrate Octoberfest.....Kampai!!!!
knight_of_Honour
Vernie, Amano the stalker stabbed the boyfriend, Arakawa, . read the article again.
cl400
Another day, another odd crime. How come so many leaders/role models (teachers, police, professors, etc) commit crimes here? What kind of example does that set?
MIKXkansai
I live about 30 metres from this murder scene. This murder happened on Thursday, Sept. 20th. I'm really surprised that this hit Japan Today's "Crime" headlines only today.
The victim has a wife and a 9 year old son who is one of my English school student's friends.
I feel sorry for them more than him.
A weird love triangle.
Weirder that a 59 year old can overpower a 36 year old apparently so easily.
Lowly
c1400
they weren't teachers/ professors. they were office staff. just for the record.
ubikwit
twisted tale.
sociopathic old man.
going to jail.
maybe hang out at the gallows...
mtwildman
@MIKXkansai..."Weirder that a 59 year old can overpower a 36 year old apparently so easily"...a blade is a huge advantage and 59 is not that old...if the guy was in a rage the victim had no chance. Most likely he was explosively attacked and was unable to deal w/the violence and died...Japan is relatively peaceful compared to the US...here he would have been badly cut...in Japan the guy died.
Probie
The creepy 59 year old probably had tard-rage. Stalkers are the scum of the earth.
fds
so he will get maybe 10 years? fair exchange for a life?
Lowly
Plenty of guys in their thirties don't do any exercise and have no power. Also,
I have practiced martial arts for years w/ guys in their 40s and 50s. The difference between them and younger guys is basically they get winded sooner, and, esp over 50, once winded, it can take awhile to get their energy back. Also their bones are more likely to break, altho that has more to do with nutrition when they were little than age. A short conflict of a few minutes will not be a problem for them. They are also of the very determined and never give up generation. If they set their mind to something they will go and do it. Plus of course the knife is an advantage.
tmarie
So the dead guy was cheating on his wife? OUch for the wife and child to learn that from this if they didn't know already.
Fadamor
Just a quick question: If I have a co-worker who's a friend and she happens to be a girl, doesn't that make her a "girlfriend" even though I haven't been cheating on my wife?
Lowly
Not usually, fadamor.
Girls say that among each other, "girlfriend" = friend. But in common parlance in the standard Englishes of various countries I am familiar with, most ppl would say a male's "girlfriend" = involved.
Fadamor
Ah, but we're not dealing with "standard" English here. We're dealing with a story that is in a foreign language and translated into English with an unknown degree of accuracy. Without knowing what phrase the police actually used to refer to the co-worker, we could be blasting this guy as an adulterer for no reason.
Goals0
Fadamor is absolutely right. The English version of this story goes further than any of the Japanese versions so far with the 'Arakawa's girlfriend' part.
I suspect this should read:
We won't get much more of this story until the weekly scandal rags come out, I think tomorrow. And half of what they write will be lies.
tmarie
Fad, from the writing and the issue, it seems they were involved - maybe not - which is why I asked.
Lowly
Sorry, Fadamor, Goals, but "girlfriend" exists in Katakana Japanese, and in that case, it is about 100% impossible to interpret as a "friend". "gaarufurendo" = involved.
They already said "female coworker" which in Japan is more than enough of a relationship-definement, everyone would see that and recognize it as a certain relationship, as so much here is based on belonging to something together. There would usually be no need to say they were "chummy" as well, as they are already seen to be close via work. Furthermore, here it is very VERY uncommon to get personally involved in other ppl's personal probs, and hard to imagine somebody from work getting into a fight with a stalker, and risking having probs at work, physical danger etc. At most, go together to complain to a higher up, or to the police together. The fact that he was proactively fighting for her, it clicks if they were romantically involved.