The Chiba Prefectural Police on Monday set up a special team to investigate the deaths of two homeless men whose bodies were found near the entrance to the Chiba Park gym here early Sunday.
According to investigative sources, Masaru Hasegawa, 54, and Ryokichi Kagaya, 60, are believed to have died between Saturday night and Sunday morning. In addition, a 68-year-old homeless man was found to have been attacked and wounded in the park by a group of four young men at the same time.
The police are investigating whether the four young men were responsible for the two deaths, the sources said.
Both men lived in the park, which is about 500 meters from JR Chiba Station, the police said. Autopsies will soon be conducted to identify the causes of death.
The deaths follow the fatal beating earlier this year of a homeless man in Higashimurayama, a suburb in west Tokyo.
On the evening of Jan. 25, five boys aged 13 and 14 attacked Kunihiko Suzuki, 55, as he was sleeping in a park in the city.
Suzuki, who had admonished the students for being noisy at a public library the previous day, survived the initial beating, but the students later assaulted him again, this time aided by two 17-year-old high school students, and eventually killed him.