The 16-year-old boy arrested in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old schoolmate said he felt snubbed by the victim and bore a grudge, investigative sources said Monday.

"She talked to me for the first time before the high school entrance examination, but after entering high school she ignored me and I began to hate her," the second-year student at a high school in Machida, western Tokyo, was quoted as telling investigators about the victim, Yua Koyama, who had been a classmate of his since elementary school.

Police suspect the youth broke into Koyama's apartment and killed her due to this hatred.