Father, 76, stabs his reclusive son, 44, to death in Japan after hearing about a loner carrying out a mass stabbing and fearing his son could do something similar
- Father stabbed reclusive 44-year-old son to death after fearing copy-cat attack
- Former Japanese envoy Hideaki Kumazawa, is said to have stabbed son in Tokyo
- Last week recluse stabbed 11-year-old schoolgirl to death and injured 17 others
A father has stabbed his reclusive 44-year-old son to death after fearing he would copy another loner and carry out a mass public attack.
Former Japanese envoy to the Czech Republic, Hideaki Kumazawa allegedly killed son Eiichiro after the dependent got irritated at the noise from a nearby school’s sports event.
Kumazawa, 76, was arrested in Tokyo on Saturday. Police suspect he feared his son would harm children at the school after finding out about a stabbing rampage last Tuesday in Kawasaki.
In that incident, a recluse stabbed to people, including an 11-year-old schoolgirl, to death and injured 17 others before killing himself.
A father has stabbed his reclusive 44-year-old son to death after fearing he would copy another loner this week and carry out a mass public attack
Former Japanese envoy to the Czech Republic Hideaki Kumazawa allegedly attacked Eiichiro following an argument about noise from a nearby sport’s event
During questioning, retired agricultural vice minister Kumazawa told police his son had rarely ventured outside and was sometimes violent towards him, according to national broadcaster NHK.
Eiichiro moved back in with his parents last month, and the family have frequently quarrelled since.
He feared his son would copy last weeks stabbing as the suspect in that case was also middle-aged and rarely left the house where he lived with his aunt and uncle. The man killed himself soon after the stabbings.
Kumazawa could not be reached for comment.
The incidents put the spotlight on Japan’s ageing group of people, known as the hikikomori, who live and home with their parents and rarely venture out, spending their days in hermit-like seclusion.
Once stereotyped as videogame-playing young men, they are ageing, and those aged from 40 to 64 number more than 610,000, the cabinet office said in a survey released in March.
Kumazawa has been arrested for attempted murder and, on monday, was named as a suspect in the investigation. (Pictured) Kumazawa during his time at the Japanese embassy in the Czech Republic
Some support groups have expressed concern that recent incidents have projected the impression that many recluses are violent, although most are not.
‘The problem is not in the act of seclusion,’ said Kazoku Hikikomori Japan group.
‘People who seclude themselves have done so to avoid getting hurt by, or causing harm to, other people at work or school.’
Kumazawa graduated from the prestigious Tokyo University and served as vice farm minister at the height of the mad-cow disease scare in 2001 before his stint as ambassador.
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