Private information about a woman who was stalked and killed by her former boyfriend a year ago is thought to have been leaked by the municipal government of Zushi in Kanagawa Prefecture, police sources said Thursday.
The stalker, Hideto Kozutsumi, 40, committed suicide after stabbing Rie Miyoshi, 33, to death at her home in Zushi on Nov. 6, 2012.
The man is believed to have asked a detective agency to find Miyoshi's address, a request the agency allegedly passed on to a Tokyo-based research firm, investigative sources said. Miyoshi had married and changed her name.
Senior officials of the firm, Hirotoshi Kohama, 59, and Tsuyoshi Kikushima, 42, are suspected of obtaining her address from the Zushi government within hours of receiving the request and giving it to the detective agency, according to the sources.
Kozutsumi killed Miyoshi the day after he received the information from the agency.
Zushi Vice Mayor Suzuko Oda told reporters Thursday the city government acknowledged that someone had checked Miyoshi's personal information but has yet to confirm the data leakage.
Kohama and Kikushima were arrested by the Aichi Prefectural Police on Wednesday over another allegation that they illegally obtained personal information on another person earlier this year.
They are believed to have connections to several detective agencies and to have obtained personal information from local governments and private firms, according to the sources.
The police handed them over to prosecutors Thursday.