TSUCHIURA, Ibaraki -- A 24-year-old man arrested in the wake of a fatal stabbing rampage at a station here has told police that he wants to be given the death penalty, police said.

"I didn't want to commit suicide. I thought I'd get the death penalty if I killed more than one person," Masahiro Kanagawa, an unemployed resident of Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, told police.

Kanagawa was arrested on charges of murdering Yoshikazu Miura, 72, after a separate stabbing rampage at JR Arakawaoki Station in Tsuchiura that left one dead and seven injured.

Ibaraki Prefectural Police will further question Kanagawa over his motives and psychological state at the time of the stabbings.

Police also found that Kanagawa had notified his mother before the crime by sending an e-mail to her mobile phone on the morning of March 21, saying, "I'm the criminal. There will be more casualties."

The e-mail was a reply to his mother, who had sent him an e-mail to confirm his whereabouts after he went missing following the murder of Miura on March 19.

Kanagawa has told police that he had initially planned to assault his sister and a local elementary school on the morning of March 19, but that he gave up on the plan. He was passing by the home of Miura, with whom he was unacquainted, when he decided to kill him.

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