OSAKA -- A 22-year-old part-time worker was arrested April 22 on suspicion she asked her boyfriend to kill a pregnant postal worker, police said.
Emi Meguri, a temporary postal worker of Matsubara, Osaka, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in what first appeared to be a "walk-by attack" by Seiichi Hidaka, 25, of Aichi Prefecture. Reportedly at Meguri's request, the boyfriend stabbed Keiko Nozawa, 29, near her home in Yao, Osaka Prefecture, on April 14. Nozawa lost her 8-month-old fetus as a result of the attack.
Police said Meguri admitted that starting in February she had repeatedly asked Hidaka, an employee of a household goods company, to kill Nozawa. They added that Meguri and Hidaka have been lovers over the last two years, and that she promised to marry him if he completed the task.
Police discovered during investigations that Meguri has been working in the same office as Nozawa's 30-year-old husband since 1994, and threatened him that she would have her acquaintance kill his wife. The incident was first considered to be a "walk-by attack" because Hidaka drove back to Nagoya and turned himself to police, saying, "I stabbed a woman who is a stranger to me because I was frustrated while the woman seemed so happy."