Wednesday, April 23, 2008FUKUOKA (KYODO) A 19-year-old member of the Ground Self-Defense Force was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stabbing to death a taxi driver in Aira, Kagoshima Prefecture, police said.
The suspect, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, is suspected of stabbing Saburo Kamizono, 58, in the neck with a knife at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the police. He was quoted as telling the police that he was not after money but intended to kill someone.
"I just wanted to be sentenced to death by killing someone. My target could have been anybody," the youth was quoted as telling police.
They first received a call from a motorist who spotted a taxi that had run into an embankment. Officers from Kajiki Police Station found Kamizono dead inside the blood-soaked vehicle. A knife was found near the driver's seat.
The police station later received a call from a person who confessed to the crime, the police said. The call was made from a nearby unmanned police box. Officers sent to the police box found the man.
The suspect, a private first class in the 1st Infantry Regiment at Camp Nerima in Tokyo who hails from Sapporo, went missing March 21, and his family filed a missing person report with Hokkaido police.
It remains unknown why the suspect was in Kagoshima. He told investigators he went to the city of Kagoshima by train and got into a taxi at Kagoshima Chuo Station.
"I seriously apologize for the incident," Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters. He said he would withhold further comment until he obtains details of the incident.
A U.S. serviceman was recently arrested for allegedly stabbing to death a taxi driver in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on March 19.
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