By Kwan Weng Kin, Japan Correspondent

TOKYO: The murders of a former top pension official and his wife and the stabbing of another former official's wife put police on alert yesterday for possibly more attacks on senior health ministry bureaucrats both past and present.

The Health Ministry has been under public fire for the past few years after it was found to have grossly mismanaged the country's national pension system.

Yesterday morning, police found former administrative vice-minister for health Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, and his wife Michiko, 61, stabbed to death in their home in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.