“I Heard a Terrible Scream”: 49-Year-Old Man Who Attacked Neighbor with Survival Knife—”Repeated Incidents” and “Intent to Kill”

A Tragedy in a Residential Neighborhood at Dusk

“I didn’t care if I died, and I intended to kill him, so I slashed the victim around the neck with a knife.”

The man, who attacked his neighbor with a survival knife and was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, reportedly made this statement during police questioning.

Around 4:20 p.m. on October 1, ’26, Mikio Shinohara (49), an unemployed neighbor, was taken into emergency custody on suspicion of stabbing a 55-year-old man multiple times in the back of the head and neck area in a residential neighborhood in Wakaba Ward, Chiba City.

“Shortly before 4:30 p.m., the man’s wife called 119 for emergency assistance. Police officers who rushed to the scene were told, ‘I was in the living room when my husband called out to me. When I went outside, he was lying on the ground and told me that our neighbor had slashed his neck,’” the report states.

The man appears to have been attacked while washing his car in the parking lot in front of his home; he was transported to the hospital in a dazed state due to heavy blood loss. Suspect Shinohara fled the scene but was arrested shortly before 6:30 p.m. as he was leaving his home.

A survival knife with a blade length of approximately 20 cm was seized from her home, and she has admitted to using it. Given that she targeted the neck and the back of the head multiple times, police believe she had a strong intent to kill. Neighbors testified, “We heard tremendous screams” and “It sounded like someone was yelling.” (Social Affairs Reporter, National Newspaper)

Shortly after 8:00 a.m. on October 3, suspect Shinohara, who had been transferred from the Chiba East Police Station of the Chiba Prefectural Police, stared impassively at the cameras of the press corps. His gaze conveyed a sense of pent-up rage.

Overgrown Shrubs

The victim’s family explained that “he had been having trouble with his neighbor for some time, ” leading authorities to believe that neighborhood disputes were behind the incident. It is also reported that the Chiba East Police Station had received multiple complaints regarding the victim and suspect Shinohara.

“We received testimonies stating that Suspect Shinohara ‘poured water from a bucket’ onto the victim’s car, as well as accounts of people being yelled at or complained to by Suspect Shinohara. Disputes between neighbors often erupt suddenly one day as a result of minor grievances that have built up over many years.

In 2019, there was an incident in Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, in which a man in his 80s beat his neighbor, a man in his 70s, to death with a baseball bat.About two months before the incident, the man had approached the local police with complaints—such as “It’s his fault that fallen leaves are piling up in front of my house” and “It’s his fault that my house got covered in dust”—whose basis was unclear.

“It’s likely that suspect Shinohara, too, gradually harbored resentment toward his neighbors and people in the area, and as that resentment grew, it eventually reached a breaking point,” said a crime reporter.

A neighborhood resident had this to say about Suspect Shinohara:

“I’ve known Mr. Shinohara since he was a child, but I don’t know what he was doing after he graduated from high school. It seems he lived with just his father after his mother passed away. He was supposed to have four siblings, but after his father passed away, I didn’t see anyone else around. His father was a really nice man… I wonder if he’s been living alone all this time…”

When we visited Suspect Shinohara’s home, it was overgrown with untrimmed shrubs, and the first-floor entrance was no longer visible from the outside. Two bicycles—it’s unclear if they belonged to the household—were left abandoned outside the property, and weeds were growing thickly in front of the parking space where a compact car was parked.

Was Suspect Shinohara living alone in this house, harboring resentment toward those around him? We await clarification on the nature of the “trouble” that remains unclear—.

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