Police have charged a 43-year-old man with murder after he attacked a 73-year-old woman with a sickle in Imari, Saga Prefecture. The woman died short afterward in hospital.
According to police, the suspect, identified as Masayuki Hara, attacked Yoshie Okubo on Thursday while she was working in a field near her home at around 3 p.m. TBS quoted police as saying Okubo was slashed several times.
Witnesses called police and Hara was arrested on the spot. Okubo died one hour later in hospital.
Hara, who lived about 120 meters from Okubo, has so far refused to give any motive for the attack, police said.
© Japan Today
18 Comments
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WilliB
A sickle! That is right out of some Hollywood horror flick. Sick bastard.
Noliving
Some murders are instant and the victim does not suffer in other cases the murder victim can lay dying for several hours.
Elbuda Mexicano
Nice! Using a sickle!! What a bastard!!
funny car
You may be thinking of the larger scythe rather than the smaller sickle (kama in Japanese). Although sometimes the Grim Reaper is pictured with a sickle.
Anyway, horrific crime. Sane or not, the killer should never walk free again.
Hide Suzuki
@Apsara
"Disputes between neighbours seem to escalate into attacks quite frequently here."
And you say that after the article that says murder rate in Japan is one of the lowest in the world but I'm sure you have access to statistics that nobody else does
Apsara
Which country, oldman_13? Japan? Murders and other violent crimes do happen here, did you think they wouldn't because there was something special and different about Japan? Disputes between neighbours seem to escalate into attacks quite frequently here.
oldman_13
Very unnerving to read of these kinds of crimes coming out of that country.
Hide Suzuki
@Maria
"murders may be at an all-time postwar low, but the ones that do occur are often pretty horrific"
Is there any murder that is not horrific ?
SenseNotSoCommon
Was he hammered?
Scnadal.Lova
why people do things for no reason, i dont know.
Serrano
Meant to say it's too bad Okubo san didn't benefit from the lowest murder rate in 69 years.
Richard bHard
for somw weird reason i thought of the grim reaper
Monaka
Whoa, images of Depeche Mode's "A Broken Frame" album cover in my mind now...
Serrano
It's too bad Okubo san didn't benefit from Japan's lowest murder rate in 13 years.
slumdog
How crass. There is absolutely nothing amusing about murder.
CrazyJoe
Heinous murders including the Amagasaki case seem to be prominent.
tamedcat
RIP to the old lady. I wonder what has happened between them before the murder.
Maria
Well, murders may be at an all-time postwar low, but the ones that do occur are often pretty horrific. The poor woman.