Hyogo Prefectural Police officers announce the suspect's arrest in a news conference in Kobe's Kita Ward on Aug. 4, 2021. (Mainichi/Ai Murata)

       KOBE -- Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested a 28-year-old man who lives in central Japan's Aichi Prefecture on Aug. 4 on suspicion of murdering a then 16-year-old high school student in the Hyogo prefectural capital city Kobe in 2010.

       According to a source close to the investigation, the suspect -- then aged 17 -- was possibly living near the scene of the crime in Kobe's Kita Ward at the time. Police will investigate the murder committed 11 years ago in detail.

       Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested the man at Aichi Prefectural Police's Komaki Police Station on the morning of Aug. 4 and transferred him to Hyogo Prefecture. The suspect allegedly killed Shota Tsutsumi, a then second-year high school student, by stabbing him on a street in Kobe's Kita Ward at around 10:45 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2010. Hyogo police have not revealed whether the suspect has admitted to the charge.

       An investigative source said Tsutsumi was sitting in the street, talking with his girlfriend when a man approached him and stabbed him to death without saying anything. An autopsy found that Tsutsumi had multiple slash wounds each about 10 centimeters long including on his head and around the neck. The assailant had been spotted sitting on a concrete parking block about 10 meters away from the couple right before the stabbing.

       Prefectural police found a small knife with blade about 10 centimeters long, believed to be the murder weapon, in a roadside drain in a nearby residential area six days after the murder. The DNA of the blood on the knife matched Tsutsumi's.

       In 2012, the National Police Agency designated Tsutsumi's murder as being eligible for the "Investigation Special Cash Reward System," in which people who provide important information receive public funds as a reward. The agency had received some 920 pieces of information.

       Following the arrest of the suspect, Tsutsumi's family issued a comment through Hyogo police, saying, "We really appreciate the police investigation. What we can do now is to quietly pray for his soul."

       (Japanese original by Kenji Tatsumi, Kobe Bureau)

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