Prosecutors charged a 16-year-old boy Wednesday with killing his parents and blowing up their apartment in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward in June.
According to the indictment, a rarity for someone who was 15 when the crimes were committed, the boy fatally stabbed his 44-year-old father and 42-year-old mother on June 20 in their home in a construction company's dormitory, where the father was the custodian.
The boy also stands accused of blowing up the house by dousing the apartment with kerosene, setting a timer to turn on an electric stove and severing a gas hose. The slain pair were found after the explosion.
The boy, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, was unaccounted for after the crime but was arrested on June 23 at an inn in Kusatsu, Gunma Prefecture.
He had been sent to the Tokyo Family Court, but his case was handed over to the prosecutors on Aug. 17 for them to decide whether to indict.
Under the Juvenile Law, prosecutors must level charges against someone remanded from a family court if they determine the accused has committed a criminal act and there is no specific reason not to indict.