If I hate one thing about Japan, it's this.

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77-year-old man confesses to killing 4 members of family in Chiba

Tuesday 24th June, 09:28 AM JST

CHIBA —

Four members of a family were found dead Tuesday morning at their home in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, after police received a call from a 77-year-old man saying he killed all other members of his family. Those killed were identified as Tokiko Kiuchi, 75, her son Shigeru, 49, his wife Miyuki, 44, and their daughter Manami, 4. Police are questioning Kiuchi’s 77-year-old husband, who made the call.

All four were apparently beaten about the head, police said. The suspect was sent to hospital after being found unconscious near a telephone at the main building of their home in Kashiwa, about 30 kilometers northeast of Tokyo. Police said they have found a blood-tainted hammer in a kitchen. Kiuchi, Shigeru and Miyuki were found dead in the main house and the small daughter was on the second floor of an annex, police said. Shigeru, a teacher at a municipal junior high school in Kashiwa, was on a three-month sick leave that began in late May, according to the municipal board of education.

(Japan Today)

4 family members found dead in suspected murder-suicide bid

KASHIWA, Chiba -- Four family members were found dead in their home on Tuesday morning, in what police suspect to be an attempted murder-suicide by the head of the family.

Tokiko Kiuchi, 75, her 49-year-old son Shigeru and his 44-year-old wife Miyuki, and the couple's 4-year-old daughter Manami were found dead at their home in Kashiwa, police said.

Tokiko's 77-year-old husband, Yoshio Kiuchi, was found in a state of shock and was taken to hospital, police said. Investigators suspect that Yoshio Kiuchi tried to commit murder-suicide and will question him over the incident.

According to police, a man called police from Kiuchi's home at around 7:05 a.m. on Tuesday, saying, "I killed all the members of my family." Police rushed to the scene and found the four members of the family dead.

There were traces of the four victims having been hit by something like a blunt object on their heads and other parts of their bodies, police said.

Investigators retrieved a blood-stained hammer from the kitchen of the main house, and Yoshio Kiuchi was found collapsed nearby in blood-stained clothes, police said.

The bodies of Tokiko, Shigeru and Miyuki were found in the main house, while Manami was found collapsed in pajamas on the second floor of an annex.

The door of the main house was not locked, but there was no trace of someone having intruded into the house from outside, according to police.

(Mainichi Japan) June 24, 2008

The son was a teacher at Amanda's school.  I knew Japan was fucked up but I never thought it would hit so close to home.  I already feel disturbed when I read the news and 90% of the national headlines are about murders or suicides but now I am going to be wondering if I know someone who knows that person.  It's scary.