The charred body of a female hotel owner was found late Tuesday night near the front lobby of her inn, and police have opened a homicide investigation, officials said Wednesday.
Eiko Kaneshiro, 40, owner of Hotel Sanwa, a three-story hotel in Nagoya's Nakamura Ward, had suffered several blows to the head, apparently inflicted with a blunt object, they said.
Investigators suspect someone killed her, sprayed a flammable liquid all over her body and set it on fire.
Nakamura police initially learned of the death when the victim's brother telephoned them at around 9 p.m. Tuesday to say his sister was dead at the hotel. Officers who rushed to the scene later identified the body as Kaneshiro.