Crime & Courts

Suspect Arrested over Alleged Murder of Kobe Woman, Saying He ‘Stabbed Her in the Stomach Once or Twice with a Knife’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:03 JST, August 23, 2025

KOBE — A 35-year-old suspect arrested over the alleged murder of a Kobe woman said he “stabbed her in the stomach once or twice with a knife,” according to police.

Masashi Tanimoto, of Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, was arrested on Friday on suspicious of stabbing Megumi Katayama, 24, in her apartment building in Kobe on Wednesday evening.

“I don’t know if I had the intent to kill her, but I stabbed her in the stomach once or twice with a knife,” Tanimoto was quoted as saying by Hyogo prefectural police during a press conference held in the early hours of Saturday.

Following the alleged stabbing, the suspect headed for Tokyo by Shinkansen bullet train from Shin-Kobe Station. He was taken into custody after being found on a road in the town of Okutama, Tokyo, by Metropolitan Police Department officers.

Tanimoto is believed to be single and works for a transportation company in Tokyo. Currently, there are no known connections between the suspect and Katayama, according to Hyogo police.

On Wednesday, Katayama left her workplace, a branch of a major insurance company in Kobe, at around 6:30 p.m. Security camera near her office footage showed a man walking behind her, according to the police.

Katayama did some shopping before arriving at her apartment building at 7:21 p.m. Footage from a first-floor security camera showed that when the woman entered the building through an automatic door, a man slipped through just before it closed.

At 7:22 p.m., a resident of the apartment made an emergency call after seeing Katayama being restrained inside the elevator on a first-floor monitor. Another resident passed a man descending the stairs on the third and fourth floors, then found Katayama laying in a pool of blood on the sixth floor, according to police.

A knife with blood police said matched Katayama’s was found in a parking lot north of the apartment building. The cause of death is believed to be blood loss following multiple stab wounds to the chest.

Tanimoto, who used to live in Kobe, was arrested in May 2022 by Hyogo police on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly injuring another woman in her 20s at a Kobe apartment building. He was later indicted by the Kobe District Prosecutors Office on assault and other charges.