Man allegedly stabs apartment owner to death after being told not to feed cats

Friday 06th June, 10:28 AM JST

KANAGAWA —

A 69-year-old man was arrested on Thursday afternoon for fatally stabbing the 76-year-old owner of his apartment after he was told not to feed stray cats in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. The victim’s daughter-in-law was also stabbed and suffered injuries to her face.

Masao Takada, 69, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Fumiya Katano, 76, to death with a survival knife around 3:40 p.m. outside the apartment after he was told by the victim not to feed stray cats that came around outside the building. A passer-by found Katano and his daughter-in-law and called police. Katano was taken to hospital but died about one hour later.

The suspect, who police say was drunk at the time of his arrest, was quoted as saying, “I got angry because he kept warning me about the cats. He told me yesterday, too, but I don’t remember stabbing him.”

Latest 15 of 20 Total Comments Show All

zanza123 at 11:52 AM JST - 6th June

Re dr jones -Really? That's what they are there for? Hmm, I thought that they were weighing them down with water for the recycling team because plastic are very light and can get blown away easily by the wind.
zanza123 at 12:04 PM JST - 6th June

How wrong I was!
greensatindress at 12:09 PM JST - 6th June

I think the water bottles are there to prevent them from 'marking' their territory. Once an area is marked with a lot of cat pi$$ it is impossible to get rid of the odor. Well, anyway...the guy is probably lonely and those stray cats were his family & friends. Of course that doesn't excuse stabbing his landlord.
matada at 12:24 PM JST - 6th June

Certainly not the first case of a guy getting stabbed over some stray cat.
capone at 01:01 PM JST - 6th June

japan is such safety country
Nessie at 02:59 PM JST - 6th June

Feed him to the cats.
Beelzebub at 03:19 PM JST - 6th June

This appears to be a typical translation glitch, since the Japanese "kau" (飼う）makes no distinction between "feed" and "raise" (or "keep"). The man wasn't just passing out Friskies, he probably had an apartment full of puss 'n boots. If the landlord had laid down the law sooner, when the tenant was sober, he'd probably still be alive today.

Moderator: The cats were stray and not pets of the tenant.
Altria at 03:29 PM JST - 6th June

You don't mess with a man't cats, that's just wrong.
terebiko at 03:31 PM JST - 6th June

Beelzebub, I'm pretty sure that he was just feeding the strays outside the apartment. We used to do that until the neighborhood gestapo kept coming around outside our building and complaining in loud voices that someone was feeding cats. Can't say I felt like stabbing any of them, but my wife might have been inclined to. At any rate, we stopped the feeding and the cat howling began. Oh well. If we were allowed to have cats in our apartment, we would have had those two strays.
GW at 04:20 PM JST - 6th June

Hey everyone if you want cats grab a stray & keep it, or if you want to help them, grab some & take them to the vet to be fixed but dont be selfish & feed strays, all yr doing is causing the stray pop to increase & more to starve in the end or end up as roadkill, now stop being selfish by feeding the buggers, Oh & watch out for yr landlords & neighbours as they wont like the cat fighting pissing & pooping that will be going on!
SushiSake3 at 05:03 PM JST - 6th June

greebsatindress - "Once an area is marked with a lot of cat pi$$ it is impossible to get rid of the odor."

Not if you blanket it in a healthy few tons of concrete.
Triumvere at 07:40 PM JST - 6th June

Wha... what?

Crazy, knife-wielding old people.
knucklerap at 10:21 PM JST - 6th June

I keep cats away by sprinkling my own urine around my house. This was actually recommended by Men's Health magazine. It really works. No more cats digging up the garden.

Put the urine in a bottle in the privacy of your bathroom.
stanoue at 10:42 PM JST - 6th June

Water bottles are meant to deter dogs-doesn't work for cats. Although lemon does - for a science project I managed to extract the oils and make it sprayable
bushlover at 11:02 AM JST - 9th June

what a w@nker. for being told not to feed cats. I hope he overdoses on alcohol.