JAPAN: Tokyo's Taiwanese community comes to terms with the fatal stabbing of two Taiwanese language students in Tokyo, and the subsequent suicide of the main suspect

Record ID: 466112

  • Title: JAPAN: Tokyo's Taiwanese community comes to terms with the fatal stabbing of two Taiwanese language students in Tokyo, and the subsequent suicide of the main suspect
  • Date: 12th January 2012
  • Summary: TELEVISION SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA6S7LUTAUPLERULCDC25BT465L
  • Story Text: Tokyo's Taiwanese community was coming to terms on Wednesday (January 11) with the fatal stabbing of two Taiwanese students and the subsequent suicide of the main suspect.
    The two women, 22-year-old Lin Chi-ying, and 24-year-old Chu Li-chieh, were discovered on January 5 covered in blood with multiple stab wounds to their necks on the floor of a dormitory owned by their Japanese language school in Tokyo's Taito ward.
    Japanese media reported 30-year-old Chang Chih-yang, another student at the Intercultural Institute of Japan language school, slashed his own throat with a concealed knife after voluntarily accompanying officers for questioning in Japan's northwestern city of Nagoya.
    "How should I put it? Before going back to Taiwan, he looked really depressed," Li Kai-ning, a former classmate of the three deceased, recalled about Chang's attitude.
    "After seeing the news I am thinking about changing school," he added.
    On Wednesday, classmates from the language school joined friends and family to pay their respects at a closed funeral in Tokyo's Shinagawa ward, local media reported.
    At a Taiwanese buddhist centre in Tokyo, Shyu Li-Shing said her prayers were with the families of the two women.
    "When the incident occurred, the first thing we thought of was how can we help the family. How can we help the deceased in departing peacefully. This was the basic first reaction," Shyu, a volunteer at the centre, told Reuters.
    But outside the city's Taiwanese community, Tokyoites, too, were in shock.
    "Lots of scary things happen, even in Japan. But what happened to both of those Taiwanese really makes me think Japan's unsafe. It was a shock. I feel sorry for their mothers and fathers," local restaurant owner Nagisa Inoue said.
    The city's Metropolitan Police department has acknowledged that officers who tracked down Chang, the main suspect in the investigation, made mistakes after they failed to notice his hidden blade despite carrying out a body search.
    As he was being taken for questioning the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said the suspect told officers: "I killed both Lin and Chu with a fruit knife. Sorry to both of them and to my family."
    The case remains unresolved.
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