The incident took place at around 7.40pm on Sunday at a 7-Eleven in a residential district of Suita city, just north of central Osaka. Police said the suspect entered the store and immediately attacked a 28-year-old female customer who was standing in line at the register, stabbing her in the back with a kitchen knife.
The woman, an office worker and a resident, sustained injuries to five areas of her back, according to police reports. Witnesses and store employees subdued the attacker until officers arrived. The woman is in stable condition after treatment in a hospital.
The suspect, also a Suita resident, was arrested at the scene and reportedly admitted to the police that he wanted to murder the victim.
“I stabbed her with the intention of killing her. There’s no mistake,” he told investigators, as quoted by local broadcaster NHK.
Police said there was no relationship between the suspect and the victim. The man claimed he had schizophrenia, prompting investigators to look into his psychiatric history as part of the inquiry.
