A 15-year-old girl arrested for allegedly stabbing and seriously wounding a passerby in Fukumitsu, Toyama Prefecture, last month has told police she did it for attention and didn't mind being arrested, police said Thursday.
The Toyama District Public Prosecutor's Office sent the girl and her 15-year-old friend, who is also being held for abetting the attempted murder, to the Toyama Family Court on Thursday, recommending that they be sent to a reformatory. The court will decide how to proceed, including whether to send the case to prosecutors or hold a juvenile trial.
The girls' names are being withheld as they are minors.
During questioning, the girls complained of family problems and being reprimanded at school over their hairstyles.
They did not express any remorse, police said.
"I don't feel that they are aware of being involved" in a crime, said a senior police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. "On the contrary, one can even feel that they were satisfied with having grabbed attention."
Prosecutors said the other girl had opposed the plan, but decided to cooperate because she feared it would hurt their friendship if she did not.
The two girls attend the same high school in Toyama Prefecture. In mid-July, the girl who later carried out the stabbing called the other girl on her mobile phone and said she wanted "to feel refreshed by stabbing someone," according to a police investigation.
The girls bought a kitchen knife several days later. At a town festival in the evening of July 22, the girl randomly selected a 21-year-old male and stabbed him in the back as her friend looked on, police alleged.