Japanese police yesterday arrested a person in connection with the murder of two Taiwanese women in Tokyo on Thursday. The police have not identified the person detained.
Japanese media earlier in the day reported that police were focusing their investigations on a missing male student from Taiwan, but it was unclear whether he has been found and detained.
According to the Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS), Tokyo’s National Police Agency launched a search in the Kansai area after collecting fingerprints from the missing student’s room, which was in a separate building 10 minutes from where the victims lived.
Police believe the missing male student has direct knowledge of the case, the MBS report added.
At a press conference on Friday morning, the Japanese police said one of the victims, Lin Chih-ying (林芷瀅), had been planning to go on a trip to Hokkaido with two male Taiwanese students aged 18 and 25.
The 25-year-old male student phoned Lin on Thursday at about 8am, police officers said. Lin answered the call, meaning she was still alive at that time, they said. However, when the two male students phoned Lin and the other victim, Julia Chu (朱立婕), at 9:20am, both failed to answer, police added.
Lin and Chu were found covered in blood on Thursday morning in their dorm building in the Taito ward. One woman was found dead at the scene, while the other died shortly afterward from her injuries.
Both women were in their 20s and studying at the Intercultural Institute of Japan language school.
Family members of the victims have asked Taiwan’s media not to speculate about the case as it may affect the investigation.
They also told reporters they had been asked by Japanese police to keep a low profile and not to reveal too much information. In addition, they thanked the Japanese authorities and officials from the Taiwan Economic and Culture Office in Japan for their assistance.
The families of the victims have agreed to have the bodies cremated in Japan and are reportedly making funeral preparations.
In the wake of rumors and media reports that a Taiwanese man might have killed the two women, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday said that Taiwanese who commit crimes in Japan have to face trial and serve their sentences in Japan because there is no extradition agreement between the two countries.
There are about 110 Taiwanese people serving jail time in Japan, ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said, adding that most of them have been imprisoned for drug trafficking offenses.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned incidents in which signage supporting Taiwan was snatched from spectators watching badminton at the Paris Olympics, saying it contravened the spirit of the Games and freedom of speech. The incident took place during the men’s doubles match on Friday, when Taiwan’s Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) advanced to the final after beating Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen. A unidentified man in a pink shirt was seen seizing the sign from a female spectator — later identified as Yang Chih-yun (楊芷芸), a Taiwanese studying in France — before being removed from the
TALLY: Sharpshooter Lee Meng-yuan won Taiwan’s first medal in Paris, taking home a bronze, while boxer Chen Nien-chin has secured at least a bronze medal Taiwanese badminton duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) yesterday won the gold medal in the men's doubles final at the Paris Olympics, defeating China's Liang Weikeng (梁偉鏗) and Wang Chan (王昶). The victory made them the first Taiwanese shuttlers to win more than one Olympic medal with back-to-back gold. They were crowned champions in the event at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Earlier in the day, Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) secured her first Olympic medal in front of a crowd chanting her name, a day after fellow boxer Imane Khelif did the same, following days of online abuse
Taiwan is to secure at least one medal at the Paris Olympics following boxer Wu Shih-yi’s (吳詩儀) quarter-final victory in the women’s 60kg (lightweight) division, while the nation’s male badminton players topped their groups. Wu defeated Maria Jose Palacios of Ecuador, a Pan American Games bronze medalist last year, by majority decision, with four out of five judges scoring in her favor. The 26-year-old pugilist is guaranteed to win at least a bronze medal, as there is no bronze-medal match in boxing. The victory was significant for Taiwan. Wu’s success came after the elimination of three Taiwanese boxers, including Kan Chia-wei (甘佳葳) in the
A hacking group believed to be linked to the Chinese government stole passwords and documents from a Taiwanese government-affiliated research center that specializes in computing, cybersecurity researchers at Cisco Systems Inc said on Thursday. The attackers used a kind of malicious software tool that is almost entirely used by China-based groups, after they gained access to the unnamed research center as early as July last year, Cisco’s Talos threat intelligence group said in a report shared exclusively with Bloomberg News. Based on that and other techniques, Cisco believes with “moderate confidence” that the hackers are part of a state-sponsored espionage group called