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| Police escort former Japanese vice culture minister Hideaki Kumazawa as he leaves Nerima police station in Tokyo on June 3. Kyodo via Reuters |
By Jung Min-ho
A former Japanese vice agriculture minister says he had no choice but to kill his own son, 44, to prevent the son from attacking children.
According to local media reports, Hideaki Kumazawa, also a former ambassador to the Czech Republic, told police he stabbed his son Eiichiro out of fear that he would harm children, who were making noise at an elementary school near their house in Tokyo on June 1.
Before the incident, the two had an argument over noise from a sports festival at the school.
Police quoted Kumazawa as saying he had to prevent his son from turning his anger on the children.
He told police he was "terrified" his son was about to go on a rampage, so he grabbed a knife in the kitchen and stabbed his son in the chest, neck and other parts of the body many times. He then called police.
"My son tended to confine himself at home," Kumazawa told police. "He sometimes committed violent acts against my wife and me. His violence started when he was at junior high school."
Kumazawa joined the agriculture ministry in 1967 and became a vice minister in 2001. After stepping down the following year, he served as Japan's Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2005-08.
