Chinese intern found dead in company dormitory in Japan and police suspect his co-worker killed him
- A Chinese man who lived in the same dormitory, thought to be in his 30s, fled the scene but was caught
- The police also found a knife at the dormitory that is believed to have been used to stab the victim
A Chinese man enrolled in Japan’s technical intern programme was found dead at a company dormitory in Toyama Prefecture, central Japan, on Thursday and police are questioning another Chinese man on suspicion of murdering him.
Construction worker Zhong Xuecheng, 37, was found dead at the dormitory, bleeding from multiple stab wounds, after police rushed to the site following an emergency call around 6.15am that a fight had broken out.
A Chinese man who lived in the same dormitory, thought to be in his 30s, fled the scene and was found about one and a half hours later at his workplace, some 2km away, where he was detained by police.
The police also found a knife at the dormitory that is believed to have been used to stab Zhong.
Many foreign nationals are working in Japan under the country’s technical intern programme, which has the aim of transferring skills to developing countries. But the scheme has been criticised for providing cover to companies that want to import cheap labour.
The Technical Internship Trainee Programme, which started in 1993, was initially described as a way of helping people from developing countries learn new skills that they could use when they had left Japan.