“I Didn’t Mean to Kill Her”—So Why? The Hidden Motive Behind the Case of a Father Arrested Over His 19-Year-Old Daughter’s Death

Stabbed multiple times with a knife and killed

“My child and husband are lying there covered in blood.”

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

On September 3, Kanagawa Police Station of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Masaki Shimazaki (70), an unemployed man from Kanagawa Ward, Yokohama City, on suspicion of killing his daughter, who lived with him.

“The incident is believed to have occurred sometime between around 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 what appeared to be a bladed weapon inside their home, killing her.

Emergency responders who arrived after receiving the report found the two victims lying in separate rooms. Mizuki died from blood loss. Shimazaki also had stab wounds to his abdomen, so he was arrested after being discharged from the hospital. During questioning, Shimazaki partially denied the allegations, saying, ‘There is no doubt that I stabbed her, but I did not intend to kill her.’” (National newspaper social affairs reporter)

At around 10:30 a.m. on September 4, Shimazaki was referred to prosecutors from Kanagawa Police Station. The stocky, salt-and-pepper-haired suspect walked with his back hunched over, seemingly struggling to breathe, before getting into the vehicle. The anguished expression he maintained throughout seemed to reflect more than just the pain from his injuries.

A resident living near Shimazaki’s home, where the incident took place, described what they saw when the incident came to light:

“It was pouring with rain on the day of the incident. There was laundry hanging outside the Shimazaki house, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh no, if they don’t bring that in, it’s going to get completely soaked.’

Then, for just a moment, I saw the lights come on inside the house. But even afterward, the laundry remained outside, and there was no sign that anyone was going to bring it in. Then several ambulances and police cars arrived. I wondered what on earth had happened. I even thought perhaps they had been robbed, but murder. I never imagined that.”

According to another resident, Shimazaki had a gentle-looking demeanor, making the news of the incident all the more shocking.

No trouble has been confirmed

What happened between the father and daughter? In past cases, excluding incidents in which a family attempted to die together, there have been relatively few cases of fathers killing their daughters, but the motives have varied.

In 2020, a 59-year-old father stabbed his 17-year-old daughter, who lived with him, in the back with a Japanese sword at their condominium in Chitose City, Hokkaido. The father himself called the police and was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder. The stab wound reportedly reached her lung, leaving the daughter seriously injured. The father stated, “We got into an argument, and I lost my temper and did it,” but denied the allegation, saying he had no intention of killing her. At the time of the incident, the daughter’s fiancé was at the scene, and police believed a family dispute was behind the attack.

In 2018, a 48-year-old father was arrested for allegedly strangling his 18-year-old second daughter, a third-year high school student, to death on the banks of the Nakagawa River in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The father was found collapsed several dozen meters from his daughter’s body, bleeding from his neck, and police believed he may have attempted suicide after killing her. The father was later not prosecuted after a psychiatric evaluation determined that he had been in a state of mental incapacity at the time of the crime.

In 2006, a 59-year-old self-employed man in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, strangled his second daughter to death at their home. The incident came to light after the man called 110 from a public telephone in Shinjuku Ward and said, “I killed my daughter. I’m going to die now.” According to the police investigation, the father had been struggling with caring for his second daughter. Four days later, the father was found dead in a wooded area in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture. A note saying “I will commit suicide” was found nearby.

According to police, no trouble within the family has been confirmed in the latest incident. Why did this tragedy occur when he “had no intention of killing her”? Investigators are awaiting clarification of the motive.

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