Married GSDF officer admits killing mistress

SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) A senior Ground Self-Defense Force officer arrested Monday on suspicion of killing a woman told police he killed her because she pressured him to marry her, police said Tuesday.

Masatoshi Imoto

Lt. Col. Masatoshi Imoto, 43, an artillery instructor at the GSDF Fuji academy, reportedly told police he strangled Miho Ohashi, 34, of Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, while on a date with her in southern Izu. He said he strangled her with a rope and hanged her corpse from a tree to make it appear like suicide, police said.

Police said Imoto and Ohashi had been seeing each other for about five years and argued about marriage while out on a drive. Police suspect Imoto, who is married, killed Ohashi because he wanted to end the relationship.

They said Ohashi was killed Oct. 6 at the Mera lookout in Minami-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture. A group of yam foragers found Ohashi's body hanging from a tree Saturday morning.

Police determined Ohashi's identity through her dental records and learned about her affair with Imoto from her family. They summoned Imoto to the Shimoda Police Station for questioning Monday morning.

That evening, the suspect allegedly attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the chest with a small knife attached to his keys while using the men's room on the second floor of the police station. He was taken to a hospital but only sustained minor injuries, police said.

He reportedly confessed to police after the suicide attempt failed.

Ohashi left home in late September saying she was going to a friend's house. She called from a cellular phone on Oct. 5 to say she would return on Oct. 9, and mail that was sent from a post office in Minami-Izu on Oct. 6 arrived at her family's home.

She had not been heard from since, and her family filed a missing person's report on Oct. 16.

According to the GSDF, Imoto graduated from the National Defense Academy in 1981 and has been serving as an instructor at the GDSF Fuji academy since August.

Officials at the Fuji academy expressed shock at his arrest, noting Imoto was known at the institution as mild-mannered and considerate.

His wife and two children lived at their own home while Imoto lived alone to work at the academy.

Defense Agency Director General Gen Nakatani told a regular news conference Tuesday morning that it was regrettable that such a serious crime had been committed by a senior SDF official.

"Such a thing should not happen, and we need to step up efforts to galvanize education of our personnel within the forces," he reckoned.