“I didn’t mean to kill her”—so why…? The “hidden motive” behind the case where a father was arrested on suspicion of murdering his 19-year-old daughter

Stabbed multiple times with a knife and killed

“My child and husband are lying on the floor, covered in blood.”

The incident came to light after the wife, who returned home in the evening, reported it to the police.

On September 3, the Kanagawa Police Station of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Masaaki Shimazaki (70), an unemployed man from Kanagawa Ward, Yokohama City, on suspicion of murdering his daughter, with whom he lived.

“The incident is believed to have occurred between approximately 7:55 a.m. and 6:10 p.m. on August 22. Shimazaki is suspected of stabbing his second daughter, Mizuhime (19), a vocational school student, multiple times in the upper body with a knife-like object inside their home, resulting in her death.”

Emergency responders who rushed to the scene after receiving a call discovered the two lying unconscious in separate rooms. Mizuhime’s cause of death was blood loss. Suspect Shimazaki also had stab wounds to his abdomen; he was arrested after being discharged from the hospital.During questioning, Shimazaki partially denied the charges, stating, “There’s no doubt I stabbed her, but I didn’t intend to kill her.” (Reporter, National Newspaper Crime Desk)

Around 10:30 a.m. on September 4, Suspect Shimazaki was transferred from the Kanagawa Police Station to the prosecutor’s office. A stocky man with salt-and-pepper hair, Shimazaki walked with a hunched back, gasping for breath, as he got into the car.The look of anguish on his face—which he maintained throughout—seemed to stem from more than just the pain of his injuries.

A resident living near Shimazaki’s home, where the incident took place, described the scene when the crime was discovered as follows:

“It was pouring rain on the day of the incident. There was laundry hanging out to dry at Mr. Shimazaki’s house, and I was watching it, thinking, ‘Oh my, if he doesn’t bring that in, it’ll get soaked.’

Then, for just a moment, the lights came on inside the house. But the laundry remained hanging, and no one seemed to be bringing it in. Right after that, several ambulances and police cars arrived. I wondered what on earth had happened. I even thought maybe there had been a robbery, but I never imagined it could be a murder…”

According to another resident, Mr. Shimazaki seemed like a gentle person, and they were shocked to hear about the incident.

“No problems have been confirmed.”

What happened between the father and daughter? In past cases—excluding incidents of family mass suicides—there have been few instances where a father attacked his daughter, though the motives vary.

In 2020, at an apartment in Chitose, Hokkaido, a 59-year-old father stabbed his 17-year-old daughter—with whom he lived—in the back with a Japanese sword. The father called the police himself and was arrested on the spot on suspicion of attempted murder. The stab wound reportedly penetrated her lung, leaving her in critical condition.The father stated , “We got into an argument, and I lost my temper and did it, ” but he denied the charges, claiming he had no intent to kill. At the time of the incident, the daughter’s fiancé was present at the scene, and police believed the incident stemmed from a family dispute.

In 2018, a father (then 48) was arrested for strangling and killing his second daughter (then 18), a high school senior, on the banks of the Naka River in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture.The father was found collapsed and bleeding from the neck several dozen meters away from his daughter’s body, leading police to suspect he may have attempted suicide after the killing. Subsequently, based on the results of a psychiatric evaluation, the father was not indicted because he was determined to have been in a state of mental incapacity at the time of the crime.

In 2006, a self-employed man (then 59) in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, strangled his second daughter to death at their home. The incident came to light when the man called 110 from a public payphone in Shinjuku Ward, saying, “I killed my daughter. I’m going to die now.” According to the police investigation, the father had been struggling with the burden of caring for his second daughter.Four days later, the father’s body was found in a wooded area in Hakone City, Kanagawa Prefecture. A note reading “I’m going to commit suicide” was left nearby.

According to the police, no domestic disputes have been confirmed in connection with this incident. Why did this tragedy occur even though he “did not intend to kill her”? The investigation into his motive is still ongoing.

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