Police Arrest Man Who Fled After Osaka Dotonbori Stabbing Incident (UPDATE1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:41 JST, February 15, 2026

The Osaka prefectural police arrested a man on Sunday morning in connection with a fatal stabbing in the Dotonbori district that left one 17-year-old dead and two others injured.

Around midnight on Sunday, a male passerby made an emergency call from the entrance of a commercial building in Chuo Ward, Osaka City, reporting, “Someone has been stabbed.” Three youths were taken to hospital. One of them, a 17-year-old youth of unknown occupation from Tawaramotocho, Nara Prefecture, was confirmed dead at the hospital. The two injured boys were both 17 years old — one was in critical condition and unconscious. A man had fled the scene, but the Osaka prefectural police found him in Naniwa Ward, Osaka City, and arrested him on suspicion of murder at about 10:35 a.m. on Sunday.

According to the prefectural police, the suspect is Ryuga Iwasaki, a 21-year-old unemployed and a resident of Osaka’s Sumiyoshi Ward. Iwasaki is suspected of killing the boy at about 11:55 p.m. on Saturday by stabbing him multiple times in the chest and other parts of the body with a knife-like object at the entrance of the commercial building.

During questioning by the Osaka prefectural police, Iwasaki reportedly said: “I had no intent to kill. I initially intended to threaten him with the knife. I stabbed the boy in the chest when he came at me.”

According to the police, Iwasaki frequented the “Guri-shita” promenade near the scene, a gathering spot for young people, and is believed to have known the boys.