Student Stabs Schoolmate Over Grudge In Japan

A Junior High School boy, who fatally stabbed a fellow student in central Japan, said he had troubles with the victim and held grudges against him, local media reported Thursday.

The alleged attacker, whose name had been withheld as he is a minor, told investigators that he bought a 20-centimetre-long kitchen knife online in advance, believed to be the knife he used to stab Yuzuki Ito in the stomach.

The victim, also a 14-year-old boy, who is in the third grade of Jyushiyama junior high school in Yatomi city, Aichi Prefecture, was confirmed dead later in the day at a hospital due to hemorrhagic shock.

No injuries were reported among other students and teachers.

The suspect, who had admitted to stabbing Ito, was arrested by the police on Wednesday and was sent to prosecutors on Thursday over the murder.

The stabbing took place from the front in a hallway outside a classroom at around 8 a.m. local time on Wednesday, when other students were arriving.

The two students were neither in the same third-year class nor the same extracurricular clubs at the school.

However, they were in the same class during their second year and went to the same elementary school.

The father of the suspect told local media “There is no information and I am confused. I cannot say anything.”

The municipal board of education said there was no mention of the two boys in its questionnaire survey last month on bullying and was not aware if there was any trouble between the two.

A father of a 15-year-old female student, who was also in the third grade, said he felt worried about the mental health of students who witnessed the incident.