A man arrested over a March 23 stabbing spree that left one person dead and seven others wounded in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, has said he wanted to kill his sister, but unable to find her, he stabbed people at random, police said March 24.

"It didn't matter who they were," Masahiro Kanagawa, 24, was quoted as saying by Ibaraki Prefectural Police, referring to his alleged stabbing of eight people near a train station in Tsuchiura.

Meanwhile, a Nagoya woman was stabbed in the back by a stranger on a bicycle early March 24, police said.

Yasuko Nakatani, 36, called an ambulance, saying she had been stabbed by a man who approached her from behind on a bicycle at around 3 a.m., when she left a friend's apartment to take her belongings from her car.

And a man from Chiba Prefecture was stabbed in the stomach later the same day by a man who reportedly demanded money, and made off with the victim's bag and cell phone, police said.