Fukuoka, Japan, August 20, 2026 — A 25-year-old Nepalese vocational school student was found dead in the Naka River in central Fukuoka on August 19, with Japanese police now investigating her death as a murder.
The victim was identified as Laxmi Rajbanshi, a Nepalese national who had been living in Fukuoka’s Chuo Ward while attending a vocational school. Japanese media reported that she had come to Japan in May 2023 on a student visa and worked part time alongside her studies.
At around 5:45 am on August 19, a passerby reported seeing what appeared to be a person floating face down in the Naka River in the Tenjin area of Fukuoka. Police officers and firefighters recovered the woman from the water, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. She was reportedly wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
Police initially examined both the possibility of an accident and the possibility that the woman had been attacked after an injury was found on her forehead. An autopsy later found multiple injuries to her head and face, apparently caused by blows from a blunt object, along with injuries to other parts of her body and hands. Police subsequently determined that the case should be investigated as a murder. The exact cause of death had not yet been established.
Investigators also found bloodstains inside Rajbanshi’s residence and are examining the possibility that she had been involved in a struggle with another person there. According to the investigation details reported by Japanese media, Rajbanshi was last seen leaving her part-time workplace at about 10:30 pm on August 18.
