Man Arrested over Murder of Tokyo Audio Company Head

Tokyo, Jan. 10 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo police have arrested a man for allegedly murdering an audio equipment-related company president who was found dead with massive bleeding at an apartment in the Japanese capital’s Ota Ward on Thursday. Arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department was Masahiro Yamanaka, 45, a sales manager of the company headed by the victim, Akihiro Kawashima, 44, investigative sources said Friday. The suspect said in voluntary questioning on Friday that he was dissatisfied with the attitude of Kawashima, his boss, hinting at having killed the president, according to the sources. Yamanaka is suspected of killing Kawashima in a room in the apartment between around 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday and 11:30 a.m. on Thursday. The suspect initially explained that he was walking for about three hours from around 5 p.m. on Wednesday and ate with a friend at a restaurant in the ward at 8 p.m. Security cameras showed the suspect leaving his home at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, heading to the scene on foot and entering the apartment at around 5:40 p.m. Kawashima returned home around 6:40 a.m., and the suspect left the apartment about 50 minutes later. Footprints with blood were left in the room and the emergency stairs. According to investigative and other sources, Kawashima was stabbed in more than 10 places, including his neck, stomach and thigh, with a blade-like object, and had what appeared to be defensive wounds on the fingers of both hands. Meanwhile, Yamanaka was stopped by investigators while walking toward a Tokyo Station platform for a Shinkansen bullet train line in the early morning on Friday, a day after the body of Kawashima was found, the sources said Saturday. “I tried to go far away as I’ve got something to consider,” Yamanaka told investigators when asked for voluntary questioning, the sources said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]