A man was found dead in a pool of blood at an apartment in Tokyo¡¯s Ota Ward on Thursday morning.

The Metropolitan Police Department found the victim face down in the dining room-kitchen area, with stab wounds in more than 10 parts of his body, including the neck, stomach and thigh. He may have died from blood loss, investigative sources said.

The victim was identified as Akihiro Kawashima, the 44-year-old president of an audio equipment-related company.

Kawashima was found after two friends visited his apartment because he failed to show up at 9 a.m. Thursday for a planned meal with them near Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture.

As he did not answer the door and the friends heard a phone ringing from inside his apartment, they had the apartment manager call the police at around 10:40 a.m. that day.

The apartment¡¯s front door and windows were locked, so police officers got hold of a spare key from a coworker of the victim to enter.

The apartment is located in a residential area about 500 meters southeast of Omori Station.

The investigative sources said Friday that the victim has what appeared to be defensive wounds on the fingers of both hands.

Footage from a nearby security camera showed Kawashima in a suit returning home to the apartment alone around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, and nothing unusual was observed, according to the sources. Investigators suspect he was attacked later.

Kawashima lived alone in the two-bedroom apartment, the sources said.

Several bloody footprints were found in the dining room-kitchen area, the hallway and the entrance of his apartment, as well as a common hallway of the apartment building. There were no signs that the attacker rummaged through the apartment.