21-Year-Old SDF Personnel Arrested on Suspicion of Killing Elderly Man in Kyoto: “I would have Killed Anyone”

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:28 JST, December 11, 2023

KYOTO — A 21-year-old Ground Self-Defense Force personnel was arrested Sunday on suspicion of fatally stabbing an unacquainted elderly man who lived in an apartment in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto.

Yukito Mizushima, who has no fixed address, has admitted to the charge and told police that he would have killed anyone. The police will further investigate his motive in detail.

According to the police, Mizushima allegedly killed an 82-year-old unemployed man living on the third floor of an apartment building by stabbing him multiple times in the back with a knife near the stair landing between the second and third floors at around 7:55 p.m. on Dec. 3. An autopsy found some of the wounds reached the victim’s heart and lungs.

Mizushima emerged as the suspect based on security camera footage. The suspect is believed to have been working at a GSDF facility in the Kyoto town of Seika and had been missing since leaving the facility on the morning of Dec. 3.

Prefectural police investigators found Mizushima coming out of a hotel in Tokyo on Sunday morning and took him into custody. A kitchen knife, believed to be used for the murder, was found in his belongings.