Suspect in Knife Attack on Sociologist Miyadai Dead

Tokyo, Feb. 1 (Jiji Press)--A 41-year-old man believed to be the suspect for a knife attack against prominent Japanese sociologist Shinji Miyadai last year is dead, police sources said Wednesday.

The man is believed to have died at a house in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, on Dec. 16. His mother living in the neighborhood visited the house and found him dead on Dec. 17, according to the sources.

He apparently killed himself, with a suicide note found stating that he had bothered his family and felt sorry. It did not mention the knife attack, the sources said.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department plans to send papers on the dead man to public prosecutors on suspicion of attempted murder.

On Nov. 29, Miyadai, a 63-year-old professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, was attacked from behind at the university's campus in Hachioji, western Tokyo. He suffered injuries that took six weeks to recover from and was hospitalized for nine days.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]