Former top farm ministry official admits to murdering reclusive son in first day of trial

Japan Times -- Dec 12

A former top bureaucrat at the farm ministry admitted Wednesday to killing his socially reclusive son, during the first day of his high-profile trial in Tokyo.

Hideaki Kumazawa, 76, who once served as vice minister at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, is on trial for stabbing his 44-year-old son, Eiichiro, in the neck multiple times at around 3:15 p.m. on June 1, causing his death from massive blood loss, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said the defendant feared for his own safety before deciding to kill his son, who had displayed violent behavior in the family home ever since he was bullied at a famous private junior high school.

After Eiichiro graduated from the school, he moved into a home of his own in the Mejiro area of Tokyo. He had moved back into his parents’ home in the capital’s Nerima Ward a week before the incident, prosecutors said.

A day after returning to his parents’ home, Eiichiro assaulted his father for bringing up the issue of some garbage left at the Mejiro residence. After the incident, Kumazawa and his wife remained exclusively on the second floor of their home, where they had moved.

The defendant decided to kill his son and left a note saying, “I think there is no other way,” prosecutors said. After the incident, he called police to report the stabbing.

The defense team said Wednesday that Eiichiro had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia and Asperger’s syndrome, adding that the defendant had “supported and cared for his eldest son desperately.”

Dec 12 (ANNnewsCH) - 長男を殺害した罪に問われた元事務次官の男は、11日の初公判で「間違いありません」と起訴内容を認めました。また、検察側は凶器が農林水産省時代の記念品だったことを明かしました。  44歳の長男を刺殺したとして殺人罪に問われた熊沢英昭被告(76)の初公判。熊沢被告は起訴内容について聞かれるとはっきりとした声で「間違いありません」と答えました。  起訴状などによりますと、熊沢被告は今年6月1日、東京・練馬区の自宅で長男の英一郎さんの首などを包丁で何度も刺して殺害。その後、「息子を刺し殺した」と自ら110番通報したとされます。  11日、検察側が明かしたのは長男殺害を決意した熊沢被告の手紙でした。熊沢被告は、事件の2日前までに妻に原稿用紙1枚に書かれた手紙を渡していたというのです。一体、何が熊沢被告を追い詰めたというのでしょうか。  検察側によりますと、長男は学校でいじめに遭うなどして家庭内暴力を行うようになり、別の家に住んでいたといいます。10年ほど前から働かずにゲームをして過ごしていて、事件1週間ほど前に練馬区の実家に戻り、再び被告夫婦に暴力を振るったというのです。一方で、弁護側は事件は衝動的だったと主張しました。検察側によりますと、凶器の包丁は農水省時代に事業の記念品として贈られたものだったそうです。次回の公判は12日で被告人質問が行われます。