The chief of the National Police Agency said he regrets police have been unable to make an arrest before the statute of limitations for the 1987 murder of an Asahi Shimbun reporter was to expire at midnight Thursday.
"I deeply regret that we were unable to arrest the suspect, although police nationwide tried their utmost to do so," NPA chief Setsuo Tanaka said earlier Thursday.
On May 3, 1987, a suspected rightwing extremist entered the newspaper's bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and fatally shot Tomohiro Kojiri, 29. The suspect also seriously injured another reporter.