SAPPORO -- A 55-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an acquaintance at his home in this city's Nishi Ward on Oct. 20 by Hokkaido Prefectural Police's Sapporo Area Nishi Police Station.

Prefectural police investigating the case have upgraded the charge against company worker Tetsuya Yanagida to inflicting bodily injury resulting in death, after Tenchi Tsuruo, 24, a company worker from Sapporo's Chuo Ward, died at the hospital.

Yanagida is specifically accused of having jumped on top of Tsuruo at his home at around 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 20 and slapping him multiple times in the face, among other violent acts causing injuries. The suspect has admitted to the charge, reportedly telling police that he "got into an argument and assaulted him."

According to the prefectural police, the two men were acquainted through work, and had been drinking at the time with one other acquaintance. As the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock due to mesenteric injury, police are looking into the circumstances on the assumption that Yanagida also assaulted Tsuruo in the abdomen.

(Japanese original by Karen Goto, Hokkaido News Department)