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Japan cautious after stabbings

Japan beefed up security at the health ministry and urged top officials to take extra caution yesterday after the murders of a former vice health minister and his wife, and a stabbing of another former bureaucrat’s wife.

Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe called the attacks “despicable acts” and said the ministry had asked police to guard current and former officials in the wake of the dual attacks. The motive for the attacks was unclear.

The ministry set up metal detectors to screen visitors and deployed more policemen around the building.

“We are extremely worried. We don’t know why they were targeted like this,” said ministry spokesman Akihiko Ito.

The ministry so far has not received any threatening phone calls or letters, Ito said.

On Tuesday morning, a neighbor found former vice health minister Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, and his wife Michiko, 61, dead in their home with several stab wounds in Saitama, some 40km northwest of Tokyo, a Saitama police spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Police found no weapons at the scene, the spokesman said.

Hours later, the 72-year-old wife of another former vice health minister was stabbed by a man at their home in Tokyo, a spokeswoman from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said yesterday, also on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

The attacker, in his 30s, had pretended to be a delivery man, and when the woman opened the door he stabbed her in the chest several times before running away, the spokeswoman said. Her husband, Kenji Yoshihara, was not home at the time of the attack.

National Public Safety Commission Chairman Tsutomu Sato said yesterday the two attacks were possibly linked. Kyodo News agency said both former vice ministers were heavily involved in pension system works and speculated the attacks might be related to a pension record scandal.

The pension mess involved an astounding 64 million pension records, including 50 million that had not been matched with their owners, and another 14 million cases that had not been entered into the government’s computer system.

Of the 50 million accounts, the government said in September it had matched 30 million of the accounts with their rightful owners, leaving another 20 million to go. None of the 14 million cases in microfilm still have been computerized.
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