The Nagoya Family Court on Tuesday moved to send a 17-year-old boy accused of killing an elderly woman and wounding her husband in Aichi Prefecture in May to a medical reformatory, judging that he suffers from a rare type of mental disorder.
Judge Yoshihiko Iwata said the teenager, whose name has been withheld because he is a minor, needs medical treatment and correctional education because he has Asperger's syndrome, a disease that diminishes his ability to distinguish right from wrong and is characterized by an inability to interact with others.
Iwata recommended the boy be kept at the reformatory for at least five years, deciding against sending him back to public prosecutors to stand trial as an adult.
The boy is accused of fatally stabbing Kiyo Tsutsui, 64, and wounding her husband, Hiroshi, 68, at their home in Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture, on May 1.