The daughter of the mayor of Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, has been missing for two days after saying she was going out to meet a female friend, police said Sunday.
The belongings of Ryoko Suzuki, the 22-year-old daughter of Nozomu Suzuki, were found on the road between her home and JR Iwata Station. Investigators said she may be the victim of a crime or an accident.
The police said they received a telephone call from the Suzuki family Friday evening, saying the young woman had failed to return home as scheduled.
According to investigations, Suzuki left home Friday morning saying she was going to meet a female friend from high school. However, she failed to turn up at JR Hamamatsu Station, where she had promised to meet the friend at noon, the police said.
At around 2:30 p.m. that day, a person in the neighborhood found Suzuki's purse lying on a road between her home and Iwata Station, some 1.2 km away. The purse contained only some small change.
About 50 meters from the spot the purse was found, the police found Suzuki's right shoe on the side of the road, investigators said.
They said attempts to contact Suzuki on her mobile phone have failed.
Suzuki graduated from a women's university in the Kansai region last week.
