The 17-year-old youth arrested Thursday for allegedly hijacking a bus and killing a passenger has said that one reason he did it was to "show what I can do," investigative sources said Sunday.
But the youth, whose name is being withheld under the Juvenile Law, has not yet disclosed who he was trying to impress with his actions, the sources said, adding that he has yet to apologize.
He has so far confessed to planning the hijacking while staying at a rehabilitation center in Saga Prefecture for psychiatric treatment, the sources said.
He was admitted in March after holing himself up at his home with a knife, they said.
The sources said the youth was temporarily released from the rehab center and returned home Wednesday morning before buying the knife used in the hijacking.
He bought the 30-cm butcher's knife at a cutlery shop in Saga for 16,000 yen before boarding the bus shortly before 1 p.m. that day and commandeering it about 40 minutes later, the sources said.
He was carrying about 50,000 yen in cash when apprehended, the sources said.
A police rescue squad stormed the bus early Thursday in Hiroshima, more than 15 hours after it was hijacked en route from Saga to Fukuoka, freed the hostages and arrested the youth.
During the hijacking, the youth stabbed three women inside the bus, one of them fatally, and held a 6-year-old girl at knife-point behind the driver's seat during talks with police and the ensuing standoff at a highway parking lot.
Police arrested him on suspicion of hijacking and illegally possessing a weapon, and plan to serve him with a new arrest warrant May 14 on suspicion of murder.