A former top farm ministry bureaucrat arrested Saturday over the murder of his son has told investigators the mass stabbing in Kawasaki last week prompted the killing, investigative sources said Monday.
According to the sources, Hideaki Kumazawa, 76, told investigators that he believed his son could "harm others" after he found out about the stabbing rampage last Tuesday, in which a man said to have become a social recluse allegedly killed two and injured more than a dozen others before taking his own life.
Kumazawa was quoted as saying his 44-year-old son, Eiichiro Kumazawa, "tended to be withdrawn from social life and exhibited violent behavior" toward him and his wife, the sources said.