THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 16, 2023 at 16:36 JST
Sociologist Shinji Miyadai speaks at the Tokyo College of Music in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward on Jan. 30. (Sayuri Ide)
Police have identified a 41-year-old man who committed suicide in December through DNA as the suspect who repeatedly stabbed sociologist Shinji Miyadai on a Tokyo university campus in November.
The DNA taken from a plastic bottle thrown away by the suspect before the assault matched that of the man, the Metropolitan Police Department said on Feb. 16.
Police said they will continue to investigate the motive for the attack. Although the man is dead, the police plan to send the case to prosecutors on the charge of attempted murder.
According to investigators, the man attacked Miyadai, a 63-year-old professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, at the school’s Minami-Osawa campus in Hachioji in western Tokyo at 4:17 p.m. on Nov. 29.
The man is suspected of stabbing Miyadai’s face, legs and other parts of his body with a knife, causing serious injuries.
When police searched for a suspect, they confirmed that the man was seen on a security camera discarding a plastic bottle into a trash can in Machida, western Tokyo, about four hours before the attack.
The bottle was recovered and DNA was taken.
The police also found that the owner of the bicycle the suspect was riding was a man living in Sagamihara's Minami Ward in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The recovered DNA matched that obtained from the hair clipper the man was using.
An axe was found at another residence belonging to the suspect. But Miyadai’s DNA was not detected on it.
Police say they believe that the man disposed of the weapon he used in the attack before he died.
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