OSAKA -- A 32-year-old Osaka housewife was arrested Friday on suspicion of stabbing her abusive husband to death with a kitchen knife at their house in Tsurumi Ward.
Police allege that Mariko Ikuta fatally stabbed her 39-year-old husband, Manabu, an Osaka municipal employee, after he punched and kicked her.
The couple dined out in Higashi-Osaka on Thursday night, but the husband returned home early after they quarreled, police said, and he became enraged when his wife arrived home at around 2:30 a.m.
The woman had asked a female friend to accompany her home, fearing she might be assaulted by her husband.