Tokyo Police Arrest Man on Suspicion of Stabbing Boss to Death in Condominium

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:35 JST, January 10, 2026

The Metropolitan Police Department on Friday arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of murdering the president of the audio equipment company he works for in a condominium in Tokyo’s Ota Ward.

The suspect, Masahiro Yamanaka, is the sales manager of the audio equipment company headed by the deceased, Akihiro Kawashima, 44. They were in the same year at high school.

According to the MPD, Yamanaka is suspected of killing Kawashima by stabbing him in the neck with a knife while in Kawashima’s third-floor residence between about 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday and 11:30 a.m. the following day.

During police questioning, Yamanaka partially denied the charges, saying, “I did stab him, but I didn’t intend to kill him.”

Security camera footage near the scene showed Yamanaka entering the condominium at about 5:40 p.m. on Wednesday and leaving at about 7:30 p.m., after Kawashima had returned home.

During voluntary questioning before his arrest, Yamanaka was quoted by the police as saying: “I was dissatisfied with [Kawashima’s] general attitude. When I visited his place to express my opinion, he flew into a rage and we got into a scuffle. I had brought a knife from home to intimidate him.”