A knife-wielding man stabbed four women at a shopping mall in Kushiro, Hokkaido, on Tuesday, leaving one of them dead and the other three injured, police said.
The suspect, Nobuyuki Matsuhashi, 33, was arrested at the scene. He reportedly told officers he had a mental illness.
"I stabbed the people because I don't care if I'm sentenced to death," he was quoted as telling the police.
The Kushiro resident and self-proclaimed newspaper delivery man attacked the four women at around 3:15 p.m. near one of the escalators on the first floor of Aeon Mall Kushiro Showa, the police said.
The deceased, identified as 68-year-old Masako Tonuma, was stabbed in the chest.
Of the other three, a woman in her 70s was seriously injured after being stabbed in the hip and the other two sustained minor injuries, the police said.
One of them was a store employee and the other three were customers, according to Aeon Hokkaido Corp., which runs the mall.
The police said that the women were stabbed with a kitchen knife with a 22.5-cm blade and that the suspect did not know the victims.
A 25-year-old witness said she was terrified.
"I just couldn't keep my eyes open," she said.
The shopping mall is about 5 km northwest of JR Kushiro Station and is surrounded by shops, restaurants and schools.