Man Arrested for Alleged Murder in Kawasaki Woman's Case

   Yokohama, July 12 (Jiji Press)--Japanese police arrested a man on Saturday for allegedly murdering his former girlfriend, whose body was found at his house in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, adjacent to Tokyo, in late April.
   The Kanagawa prefectural police department suspects that Hideyuki Shirai, 28, killed Asahi Okazaki, a 20-year-old part-timer, in or around the prefecture on or around Dec. 20, 2024. The police will investigate in detail the method used in the alleged murder, as well as other circumstances surrounding the high-profile crime.
   Shirai has declined to comment on the case during police questioning. He has already been indicted on suspicion of abandoning Okazaki's body and stalking the former girlfriend.
   Okazaki went missing last December when she was staying at her grandmother's house in Kawasaki. The police found her body under the floor of Shirai's house during their raid on the residence in late April this year for his alleged violation of the law against stalking.
   The woman's body, found in a bag, was burnt severely and partially skeletonized. The cause of her death has yet to be identified.

(2025/07/12-21:17)