Tokyo prosecutors dropped the case against a 26-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing a shop assistant at a commercial complex in Ikebukuro, because the suspect is dead, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said on the 6th.
The man, the woman's former partner, had been referred to prosecutors on suspicion of murder and other charges. He cut his own neck immediately after stabbing her and died.
The stabbing happened shortly after 7 p.m. on March 26 at the Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo, a merchandise shop inside Sunshine City. Police referred the case to prosecutors in July.
A restraining order was in place
The man had been arrested in December 2025 on suspicion of violating the Stalker Control Law — legislation that lets police issue orders barring a person from loitering near or contacting another — and was convicted. An order banning him from following the woman and approaching her was in force at the time of the attack.
Under Japanese law a suspect who dies before indictment cannot be tried, so the case ends without a ruling on the charge. The woman's family is left without a verdict or a court record of what happened.