A 49-year-old man was shot in the chest with an apparent gun at a Starbucks outlet in a shopping mall in Shikokuchuo, Ehime Prefecture, around 4 p.m. Sunday, and was confirmed dead after being rushed to a hospital, according to local police.
The Ehime prefectural police department is searching for a middle-aged man who fled the scene of the shooting after the incident.
The Aeon Town Kawanoe shopping facility is located about 3 kilometers east of JR Iyo-Mishima Station.
A man who lives nearby said he heard a bang and thought it was a car crash.
An employee at a car dealer in the same shopping complex said he saw an ambulance coming in about five minutes after the shooting.
"This area is far from a place where this kind of thing would ever happen," he said, adding that he wanted the police to find the suspect as soon as possible.