A 14-year-old junior high school boy was arrested Saturday for allegedly stabbing to death a 57-year-old male acquaintance, adding to a spate of murder charges against Japanese teenagers.
Police held the boy, whose name was withheld because he is a minor, in an apartment house in Shimizu, some 150 kilometers (95 miles) southwest of Tokyo, where the victim, Kazuhiro Sugiyama, lived.
A 54-year-old woman who lived with Sugiyama called police after the alleged stabbing incident, a police spokesman said.
Following a series of murders involving juveniles, Japan's parliament tightened rules in November to combat youth crime, such as lowering from 16 to 14 the minimum age at which children can be held criminally responsible for their actions.
In July, a 17-year-old high school boy was arrested after allegedly injuring four friends and killing his mother with a baseball bat.
Another 17-year-old high school student was arrested Tuesday in Nagoya, central Japan, in May for allegedly stabbing a housewife to death with a kitchen knife to "gain an experience."
In May, a 17-year-old boy was arrested in Hiroshima, western Japan, after hijacking a bus for 15 hours, stabbing to death one passenger and injuring two others -- TOKYO (AFP)
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