News On Japan

Zama suspect 'gave liquor, drug and attacked'

Nov 05, 2017 (NHK) - Police in Tokyo say a suspect in a serial murder case told them he gave some of the victims liquor or tranquilizers before attacking them.

27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi was arrested on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. Dismembered bodies of 9 people have been found in his apartment in Zama City near Tokyo. Shiraishi admitted killing all the victims in his apartment.

Shiraishi reportedly said he found suicidal women through Twitter and lured them to his apartment by proposing they commit suicide together.

Shiraishi told the police that he used alcohol, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills to relax some of the victims before attacking them.

Police say they found sleeping pills in his apartment. They suspect that Shiraishi used these to prevent the victims from resisting.

Shiraishi also reportedly admitted that he had no intention to commit suicide with the victims despite his words. He said he killed them without their consent.

Investigators are also trying to identify the victims. They say some promising clues on 6 women were found. They include cash cards and patient ID cards found in the suspect's room, as well as smartphone GPS records.

The 6 women include a 23-year-old Tokyo resident who has been missing since late October, and a high school student from Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo.

Source: ANNnewsCH

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Typhoon No. 31 (In-Fa) was moving north-northwest over waters south of Japan as of 3 a.m. on November 3, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, with forecasts indicating that the storm will turn north and then northeast before becoming an extratropical cyclone east of Chichijima around November 7, posing little direct threat to mainland Japan but raising concerns about dangerous waves along the Pacific coast.

Kyoto City announced plans on November 2nd to introduce tougher regulations on private lodging facilities, including a requirement for staff to be stationed permanently inside the properties or in nearby buildings, as complaints from residents continue to rise over noise and disruptive tourist behavior.

Spanish authorities have confirmed that a Japanese national was among the 69 people killed in a collision between two high-speed trains in central Spain on October 28, while Japanese officials are continuing efforts to establish the identities of victims following the disaster, which also left about 200 people injured.

Train services remain suspended on part of the JR Soya Line in Hokkaido on November 2 after a limited express train collided with a brown bear and derailed in Nakagawa on Saturday night, with replacement bus services beginning Monday morning between Asahikawa and Wakkanai.

Tokyo's Shibuya district was crowded with costumed revelers on October 31 as Halloween fell on a Saturday for the first time in six years, prompting the Metropolitan Police Department to deploy hundreds of officers and impose traffic restrictions around the area's famous scramble crossing.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

A medium-sized truck carrying an excavator overturned and crashed into a used car dealership showroom in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, on November 2, apparently after the construction equipment struck a pedestrian overpass and caused the vehicle to lose its balance, police said, adding that no injuries were reported.

Five pedestrians were injured, two seriously, when a car struck a stationary bus before plowing into a crowded sidewalk near Naruko Gorge, a popular autumn foliage destination in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on November 1, with police arresting the 73-year-old driver at the scene on suspicion of negligent driving causing injury.

The family of a 16-year-old girl who died from severe malnutrition six months after being arrested and detained for 18 days over an assault allegation she denied has launched a lawsuit against Hyogo Prefecture and the Japanese government, with the first hearing held at Kobe District Court on October 21, as a separate case involving a 12-year-old girl has raised further questions about interrogation practices at the same police station.

A Japanese man believed to be the second-in-command of the criminal organization JP Dragon, which allegedly operated from the Philippines and repeatedly targeted Japanese nationals in organized fraud schemes, has been detained by Philippine authorities as part of an ongoing crackdown on the group.

A 79-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, on October 31 after allegedly driving approximately 2.2 kilometers with a 56-year-old man clinging to the hood of her car following a dispute in a condominium parking lot.

Japan's rapidly aging population is facing a growing crisis of elderly people dying alone at home, with grieving families sometimes unable to see their loved ones before burial and landlords increasingly forced to shoulder substantial cleanup and estate clearance costs when relatives abandon their inheritance.

Traditional Japanese crafts are finding an unexpected source of skilled workers in prisons across the country, where inmates are learning painstaking production techniques that build patience and concentration while helping preserve industries struggling with a shortage of craftspeople.

A Japanese woman in her 20s was found dead at an apartment complex in Cheonan, central South Korea, on October 29th, prompting police to detain a South Korean man in his 30s on suspicion of murder after he allegedly confessed to killing her because he had decided to commit suicide following stock market losses but could not bring himself to die alone.