Two female Taiwanese students were killed in the dormitory of a Japanese language school in Tokyo yesterday. At present no motive for the murders has been ascertained, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said.
Su Qi-cheng (蘇啟誠), deputy secretary-general of the ministry’s Association of East Asian Relations, said the ministry has requested that the police in Japan, who are investigating the incident, keep Taiwanese officials up to date with the latest developments
According to Japanese media -reports, the two students, 23-year-old Lin Chih-ying (林芷瀅) and 25-year-old Julia Chu (朱立婕), were found covered in blood in the bedroom and doorway of a dormitory at the Intercultural Institute of Japan in the Taito area of eastern Tokyo.
Photo: CNA
One of the women died at the scene, the other a short time later after being rushed to hospital. Both had been reportedly stabbed in the neck.
The Japanese media reported that police in Tokyo received a report of the incident at 11am yesterday from two teachers at the Intercultural Institute of Japan, after being informed by two male Taiwanese students that they were unable to contact the women.
A police search of the dormitory failed to turn up keys to the apartment or the murder weapon, according to Japanese media reports, with the police quoted as saying that the women died from knife wounds to the carotid artery from which they bled to death.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson James Chang (章計平) said Taiwan’s representative office in Tokyo had held an urgent meeting and set up a special task force to handle the case, adding that the ministry would provide all necessary assistance to the -families of the two students.
“An emergency task force has been formed by Taiwan’s representative office in Tokyo to look into the details of the incident,” Chang said. “Our staff has arrived at the scene to collaborate with the local police.”
Members of the victims’ families arrived in the city late yesterday.
Lin’s father told reporters in Greater Taichung yesterday that when he last spoke to his daughter on Wednesday night by Internet phone, she said she was planning to visit Hokkaido in northern Japan the next day. He said it was hard for him to accept that just one day later she had died.
The father added that he believed the women were killed by someone they knew, noting that the dormitory has a security system that requires an electronic security card for entry and exit.
Additional reporting by CNA
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better