Ikeuchi, 51, explained to the police that he had only intended to stop a quarrel between his parents. When a fight broke out at the family's home in Osaka, he started waving a 30-centimetre (12-inch) long wooden chopstick in front of his parents and accidentally stabbed his 80-year-old father's throat with the utensil.
"He said that in his anger he'd waved the chopstick in front of his father but before he knew it, it got stuck in him," an Osaka police official told AFP.
Violent incidents involving chopsticks are not as uncommon in the region as one would think. In 2008, an inmate in Fuchu Prison killed himself by breaking a chopstick and stabbing the back of his head with the sharp end.
In March, a 23-year-old Chinese woman, Tang Tang, accidentally swallowed a chopstick while using it to induce vomiting. Doctors had to remove it surgically, Huanqiu.com reported.
Chopsticks, which were originally made of bamboo or wood, have been used as traditional ancient cooking and eating utensils throughout East Asia for more than six thousand years. They were first used by the Chinese and soon spread to countries such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, and others.
