2021 Tokyo stabbings

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2021 Tokyo stabbings
Odakyu 5000 Series (2 Generations) 5051F ver.2.jpg
An Odakyu train
Location Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, Japan
Date6 August 2021 (2021-08-06)
8:30 p.m. (JST)
Attack type
Mass stabbing, attempted arson
WeaponsKnife
Deaths0
Injured9 [1]
MotiveAlleged/claimed sexual and romantic rejection by women
Jealousy [2]
AccusedYusuke Tsushima [3]

A mass stabbing incident occurred on 6 August 2021, at a commuter train in the Odakyu Electric Railway in Tokyo, Japan. The suspect, a 36-year-old man named Yusuke Tsushima, was arrested hours later at a convenience store. Police have so far charged him with the attempted murder of a woman who sustained serious injuries to her back and chest. The suspect also tried to start a fire on the train's compartment, which ultimately failed.

Contents

Background

Although Japan ranks amongst the countries with the lowest crimes rates, [4] incidents of mass stabbings are not uncommon. [5] In 2008, a 25-year-old man committed the Akihabara massacre, killing seven people. Eight years prior, Mamoru Takuma murdered eight children at an elementary school in the Osaka school massacre. In 2016, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu committed one of the most serious incidents of mass murder in Japan since World War II, when he stabbed 19 severely disabled people to death at a care center. Further incidents happened again in 2008 when Masahiro Kanagawa killed a man and injured scores of others with a knife and most recently, the Kawasaki stabbings in 2019, when a man who self-identified as a hikikomori , killed two schoolchildren and injured 18 others at a bus stop before killing himself.

Incident

At around 8:30 pm (JST: UTC+9) on 6 August 2021, [6] Yusuke Tsushima, age 36, [7] began stabbing people indiscriminately on a commuter train in Setagaya Ward, injuring four women and five men. [8] The train was immediately halted and Tsushima spread cooking oil on the compartment's floor and tried to ignite a fire before escaping. [9] Police rapidly responded to the incident, with a woman being transported to hospital with serious stab wounds to her chest and back. [6]

Tsushima, who had been suspected of shoplifting earlier in the day, [10] remained at large amidst a manhunt for hours. [11] He finally entered a convenience store hours after the incident in Suginami Ward and informed the store employee that he was the suspect saying "I am the suspect in the incident reported by news media. I am tired of fleeing". The store employee quickly informed police and Tsushima was apprehended. [12]

Although police opened an investigation, Tsushima was quoted as saying that he had been wanting to "kill a happy woman for the past six years" [13] and added that the day of the incident "anyone would have been OK". [8] He also stated that he thought "he could kill a large number of people given there's no space to escape inside a train". [14]

Tokyo Police charged him later with the attempted murder of the seriously injured woman and other charges. Tsushima is a native of Kawasaki, Kanagawa. [1]

On 8 August 2021, Tsushima was sent to the prosecutors, where he said that he was ultimately motivated to commit the crime when he faced online rejection from women and regretted that he had not killed anyone, quoted as saying that the fact that no one had died was "unfortunate" for him. He also said that his life was a misery and blamed society. [15]

Plan to bomb Shibuya Crossing

On 10 August 2021, Tsushima reiterated his intent to target "happy-looking couples" in his attack and told police he considered bombing the famous Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. Tsushima told investigators that he was willful in his intent to kill the seriously injured woman on the train because she looked like a "winner" in life. Police formally re-arrested him after the interrogation. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Akihabara massacre 2008 civilian attack in Tokyo, Japan

The Akihabara massacre was an incident of mass murder that took place on Sunday, 8 June 2008, in the Akihabara shopping quarter in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The perpetrator, 25-year-old Tomohiro Katō of Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, drove into a crowd with a rented truck, initially killing three people and injuring two; he then stabbed at least twelve people using a dagger, killing four other people and injuring eight.

A series of uncoordinated mass stabbings, hammer attacks, and cleaver attacks in the People's Republic of China began in March 2010. The spate of attacks left at least 90 dead and some 473 injured. As most cases had no known motive, analysts have blamed mental health problems caused by rapid social change for the rise in these kinds of mass murder and murder-suicide incidents.

A knife attack near Munich took place on 10 May 2016 when a 27-year-old mentally disturbed man stabbed four men, one of them fatally at Grafing station in the Upper Bavarian town of Grafing, some 32 kilometres (20 mi) from Munich, southern Germany. As the knifer reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" while stabbing the random victims, first reactions of the German and international media as well as the general public suspected an Islamist attack. On his arrest shortly after the attack, the perpetrator proved to be a mentally disturbed, unemployed carpenter with drug problems and no known ties to Islamist organizations. In August 2017 the Landgericht München II ruled the man to not be criminally liable of the crime and committed him to a closed psychiatric ward.

The Sagamihara stabbings were committed on 26 July 2016 in Midori Ward, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan. Nineteen people were killed and twenty-six others were injured, thirteen severely, at a care home for disabled people. The suspect was a 26-year-old man, identified as Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the care facility. Uematsu surrendered at a nearby police station with a bag of knives and was subsequently arrested. The attack was described as one of the worst crimes committed on Japanese soil in modern history.

On 3 August 2016, a mass stabbing occurred in Russell Square, London. Six people were stabbed, one fatally, before a suspect, identified as Zakaria Bulhan, was apprehended by police and charged with murder and attempted murder. The media initially linked the stabbing to terrorism, but later shifted its focus to possible mental disorders.

2017 Jerusalem Light Rail stabbing Terrorist attack in Israel on 14 April 2017

The 2017 Jerusalem Light Rail stabbing was a stabbing attack and suspected act of terrorism that occurred on Good Friday, 14 April 2017, on Jerusalem Light Rail's car. In the attack, a 20 year old British student was stabbed to death by a Palestinian man. Two others, including a pregnant woman, were injured in the incident. The attacker was arrested and was deemed competent to stand trial.

2017 Portland train attack Racial slur followed by murder on a train in Portland, Oregon

On May 26, 2017, Jeremy Joseph Christian fatally stabbed two men and injured a third after he was confronted for shouting racist and anti-Muslim slurs at two teenage black girls, Destinee Mangum and Walia Mohamed, on a MAX Light Rail train in Portland, Oregon. Two of the victims, Ricky John Best of Happy Valley and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche of Portland, were killed; the third victim, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, survived serious wounds.

2017 Turku attack Terrorist attack in Turku, Finland

The 2017 Turku attack took place on 18 August 2017 at around 16:02–16:05 (UTC+3) when 10 people were stabbed in central Turku, Southwest Finland. Two women were killed in the attack and eight people sustained injuries.

On 7 March 2018, two stabbings occurred in Vienna, Austria during the evening. A man has been arrested for both attacks. On 11 March 2018, there was a separate stabbing attack at the Embassy of Iran in the city. The Austrian government hardened its asylum policy after the attacks.

2018 Paris knife attack 2018 terrorist attack

On 12 May 2018, a 21-year-old Chechnya-born French citizen, armed with a knife, killed one pedestrian and injured four others near the Palais Garnier, the opera house in Paris, France, before being fatally shot by police. The stabbings were in the area of Rue Saint-Augustin and Passage Choiseul. French President Emmanuel Macron said France had "paid once again the price of blood but will not cede an inch to the enemies of freedom." The suspect, identified as Khamzat Azimov, had been on a counter-terrorism watchlist since 2016. Amaq News Agency posted a video of a hooded person pledging allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, claimed to be the attacker. Europol classified the attack as jihadist terrorism.

A mass stabbing is a single incident in which multiple victims are harmed or killed in a knife-enabled crime. In such attacks, sharp objects are thrust at the victim, piercing through the skin and harming the victim. Examples of sharp instruments used in mass stabbings may include kitchen knives, utility knives, sheath knives, scissors, samurai swords, hammers, screwdrivers, bayonets, axes, machetes and glass bottles. Knife crime poses security threats to many countries around the world.

Kawasaki stabbings Knife attack

The Kawasaki stabbings occurred on the morning of 28 May 2019 in the Tama ward of Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, four blocks west of Noborito Station. Two people were murdered, and 18 others were injured after being stabbed at a city bus stop by 51-year-old Ryuichi Iwasaki. After carrying out the attack, he committed suicide by stabbing himself in the neck.

On Saturday night, December 28, 2019, the seventh night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, a masked man wielding a large knife or machete invaded the home of a Hasidic rabbi in Monsey, Rockland County, New York, where a Hanukkah party was underway, and began stabbing the guests. Five men were wounded, two of whom were hospitalized in critical condition. Party guests forced the assailant to flee by wielding chairs and a small table. Three months after the stabbing, the most severely injured stabbing victim, aged 72, died of his wounds.

2020 Streatham stabbing Stabbing attack in Streatham, London

On 2 February 2020 two people were stabbed in Streatham, London in what police termed a terrorist incident. The attacker, Sudesh Amman, was shot dead by the police. A nearby woman was slightly injured by broken glass as a result. At the time Amman was under active counter-terrorism surveillance, after having recently being released from prison on licence; he had been convicted in 2018 for disseminating terrorist material. Following the attack, the British government introduced the Terrorist Offenders Bill, a piece of emergency legislation intended to prevent those convicted of terrorist offences from being released early from prison.

2020 Reading stabbings Stabbing attack in Reading, England

On 20 June 2020, shortly before 19:00 BST, a man with a knife attacked people who were socializing in Forbury Gardens, Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom. Three men died from their wounds, and three other people were seriously injured. A 25-year-old Libyan male refugee named Khairi Saadallah was arrested nearby shortly afterwards. Saadallah was a former member of the Libyan militant group Ansar al-Sharia. He was charged with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder; he pleaded guilty. In January 2021, Saadallah was sentenced to life imprisonment.

On 31 October 2020, two people were stabbed to death and 5 others injured near the Parliament Building in the Old Quebec neighbourhood of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The perpetrator, 24-year-old Carl Girouard, was arrested immediately following the attack.

On December 27, 2020, a man stabbed fourteen people in Kaiyuan, China, killing seven.

The 2021 Anqing stabbing attack was a mass stabbing in which six people were killed and 14 others wounded in Anqing, China on June 5, 2021. The attack is believed to have been committed by a single attacker. The attacker wielded a knife and indiscriminately stabbed pedestrians in the streets. The suspected perpetrator was identified as 25 years old and unemployed when the stabbings had occurred. His name has not been publicly released and he currently awaits trial.

On 25 June 2021, a mass stabbing occurred in Würzburg, Germany. The attacker killed three civilians and wounded seven others. Minutes later, the police shot the suspect and arrested him.

October 2021 Tokyo attack

At around 8 p.m. JST on 31 October 2021, a man carried out a knife, hydrochloric acid and arson attack on a Tokyo subway train as it was travelling to Kokuryō Station on the Keiō Line in Chōfu, a city in the western suburbs of Tokyo, Japan. He injured 17 people, one critically. The man, identified as 24-year-old Kyota Hattori, was arrested at the scene.

References

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  4. "Homicide and Robbery Rates Extremely Low in Japan". Nippon.com. 23 December 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  5. Sato, Mai (29 May 2019). "Despite Japan's low crime rates, it's seen a number of mass stabbings in the past decade". The Conversation. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Tokyo train stabbing suspect hoped to kill 'as many as possible'". The Asahi Shimbun . 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  7. AP (7 August 2021). "Man Arrested After Injuring 10 With Knife On Tokyo Train". NPR.org. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  8. 1 2 "Knife attacker on Tokyo commuter train wanted to kill 'happy women'". The Japan Times . 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
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  10. Castronuovo, Celine (7 August 2021). "Japanese police arrest man who stabbed 10 people on Tokyo train". The Hill. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
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  12. Maruyama, Mayumi (7 August 2021). "At least 10 people injured in stabbings on Tokyo train". CNN . Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  13. "Knife attacker on Tokyo commuter train wanted to kill 'happy women'- NHK". Reuters. 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  14. "10 injured in knife attack on Tokyo train". News india. 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  15. "Man arrested in train stabbings suffered rejection in relationships". Kyodo News . 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  16. "Man in train knife rampage thought of bombing landmark Shibuya Crossing". Kyodo News . 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.