YAMAGUCHI — The father of Takeshi Koizumi, 46, the man who has allegedly admitted to stabbing a former vice health minister and his wife, said Sunday he received a phone call from his son for the first time in about 10 years Saturday evening, just before he turned himself in to police.
Responding to requests for comments from reporters, the 77-year-old man said he was at a loss over how to deal with the incident.
According to the father, Koizumi called him at his home in Yanai, Yamaguchi Prefecture, just before 5 p.m.
"I sent a letter so please read it. You should receive it tomorrow," Koizumi was quoted as saying by the father. The phone call lasted about 10 seconds, he said.
"(I thought) he may have been married" because he sounded cheerful, he said.
Koizumi graduated from a high school in Yanai and entered the science and engineering department of Saga University, the father said. He dropped out and started working in a computer company in Tokyo. He also worked part-time for a delivery company but both jobs didn't last.
He then worked for two years in an ice cream wholesaler in Yamaguchi before moving to Saitama because "he found a good job," his father said.