A 50-year-old man pulled a knife Monday and stabbed two women in a shopping arcade in Nagoya, killing one and seriously wounding the other.
Police immediately subdued and arrested the man, whom they described as being unemployed and of no fixed abode. His name was withheld because he may be suffering from mental illness.
Kazue Iwaguchi, 85, died from loss of blood shortly after being taken to a hospital, while Sanae Usami, 59, sustained serious abdominal wounds, according to police.
The two Nagoya women were attacked at around 9:15 a.m. after the suspect bought the knife, which has a 17 cm blade, at a nearby shop, police said.
The man, a regular at a local pachinko parlor, said he had always thought that Usami, who runs a shoe store near the parlor, was "staring" at him, police said.
On Monday, the man had the same feeling, bought the knife and assaulted Usami, investigators quoted him as saying.
He stabbed Iwaguchi, who was on her way home from a hospital, "because she happened to be there," police said.
The man also made incoherent statements, including that he had been "ordered (to stab the women) by somebody." He also claimed to have been a mental hospital patient.
Witnesses said the man suddenly stabbed Usami as she was about to open the shutters to her store.
She ran to a store run by her husband about 30 meters away to seek help.
The man initially chased Usami, but turned back and stabbed Iwaguchi, who had just come out from a hospital.