fuyumi

TOKYO - A JAPANESE policeman, distraught by working long hours and weekends for two months, stabbed himself in the stomach with a knife to get some time off, police said.

The 44-year-old officer knifed himself at his home in north-western Japan on May 23, but told police he had been attacked, prompting an attempted murder investigation, Ishikawa prefecture police said in a statement on Monday.

Investigators began to suspect his story after they could not find evidence of anyone who matched the description the officer had given, a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Suspicions were also raised because the officer had waited about an hour before reporting the alleged attack. His wounds were not life-threatening.

The officer, whose name was not released by police, had been in charge of a disaster relief detail following a March 25 earthquake in the area that killed one person injured more than 300.

The officer admitted he had stabbed himself in questioning following his May 31 release from the hospital, the spokesman said.

The case is now being investigated as filing a false report, a misdemeanor.

Death from overwork, known as 'karoshi,' has steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

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