At around 10:30 p.m. on Monday, the driver of an Echigo Line train was unable to stop after seeing the girl, a second-year elementary school student, on the track bed in the Aoyamasuido area of Nishi Ward.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the Nishi Police Station said that bruises on the face of the girl revealed that she had been strangled while alive.
The stretch of track where the girl was struck is bordered by fencing and shrubs, which reduces the likelihood of a person straying in front a passing train unlikely, police said.
The guardian of the girl, who lives in the same ward, lodged a missing persons report with police at some point on Monday night.
Police are treating the case as the result of foul play.
