Four family members were stabbed by a man at a restaurant near Tokyo on Sunday evening and one of them, a little girl, died, police said.
The police arrested the man, a former local politician who was part of the family group dining at an “izakaya” restaurant in the city of Chiba.
A girl, who was around six years old, was taken to hospital unconscious and later pronounced dead.
Her father was stabbed in his thigh and her mother was stabbed in her upper torso, but neither is in life-threatening condition. The girl’s baby sister, aged around one, suffered a minor injury.
The father told investigators the suspect is a relative of his wife.
The man, a former Chiba city assembly member, became angry and started shouting before stabbing the family, police quoted the father as saying.