KAGOSHIMA, Japan - A Japanese court on Monday sentenced a 19-year-old man to 18 years in prison for the 2024 murder of a nursery school teacher on Tokunoshima Island in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima.
The Kagoshima District Court found the man, who was 17 at the time of the incident, guilty of fatally stabbing Fusako Kikuchi, 55, at her home in the town of Isen. Prosecutors had sought a 22-year prison term.
The man has not been identified because he was a minor at the time of the crime. The defense had sought to have the case transferred to a family court for possible placement in a juvenile reformatory, saying that psychological factors diagnosed after the incident had influenced his acts.
He entered Kikuchi's house through an unlocked window between about 4:40 p.m. and 5:20 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2024, stabbing her multiple times in the chest and other parts of her body, according to the indictment. He had decided to kill her in the belief that noises from Kikuchi's house were intentionally aimed at harassing him.
The defendant admitted the charge.
