A 55-year-old man who fled his home with his wife and two daughters out of fear of his violent son was sentenced to five years in prison for killing the 22-year-old son.
Presiding Judge Fumio Yasuhiro said in the ruling that the defendant's responsibility is grave because he attempted to solve his problems by killing his son, but Yasuhiro also pointed out that the defendant had been mentally hard pressed by his son's violence. According to the ruling, Toshiaki Takizawa, a driver from Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, stabbed his son in the chest with a kitchen knife on a street in front of their home on Sept. 19 last year. His son died of blood loss.
After graduating from a junior high school, the son joined a "bosozoku" motorcycle gang and asked for money from Takizawa a number of times, the ruling said. When Takizawa began refusing to hand over money, his son went on rampages, smashing furniture and other household items, it said. Finding it impossible to put up with his son's violence, Takizawa, his wife and two daughters abandoned their home and lived in a wagon.