Japanese police investigate the scene in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, where a Korean woman was found collapsed and bleeding on Sept. 1, 2025. [Yonhap]
Japanese police investigate the scene in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, where a Korean woman was found collapsed and bleeding on Sept. 1, 2025. [Yonhap]

A South Korean man on trial for allegedly stabbing and killing a Korean woman in a residential neighborhood in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, told a Tokyo district court at his first hearing Wednesday that he had no intention of killing her.

According to the Sankei Shimbun and other outlets, prosecutors argued at the hearing that the suspect — a man in his 30s surnamed Park, charged with murdering a Korean woman in her 40s — had visited the victim's home 13 times and waited in hiding near the scene on the day of the attack, making it a premeditated crime.

Park acknowledged stalking the victim but denied that the killing was planned, saying he had no intent to kill. He said he went to her home to receive a personal apology after she ended their relationship, and that he had brought the weapon to take his own life.

Park allegedly stabbed the woman in the neck with a weapon he had prepared in advance on Sept. 1, 2025, in the Setagaya Ward neighborhood. She was rushed to a hospital immediately after being found but died from her injuries. Park fled the scene and was arrested by Japanese police at Haneda Airport.

Park had been living in South Korea and traveled to Japan three days before the attack, reportedly to meet the victim.

The victim was self-employed. Before the attack, on Aug. 29, 2025, she visited a local police box to report that "a problem had arisen" after she told her partner she wanted to end the relationship.


jshan@heraldcorp.com