Suspect in Tokyo Metro stabbing chose station to highlight ‘educational abuse'
A 43-year-old man accused of stabbing a University of Tokyo student at Todaimae Station in central Tokyo earlier this week has told investigators he chose the location because it would 'evoke thoughts of educational abuse,' police sources said Friday.
The suspect, Yoshitaka Toda, was sent to prosecutors the same day on suspicion of attempted murder and violating a weapons possession law.
According to police, Toda admitted to the attack and claimed he wanted to make a statement about the pressures of overbearing parenting.
'I suffered from educational abuse by my parents,' Toda reportedly said. 'I chose Todaimae Station because it would make people associate the attack with that kind of pressure. I wanted to show that excessive expectations can drive a child to go astray.'
Toda added that he struggled with mental health issues stemming from his upbringing, saying he became truant in junior high school due to his parents' expectations for him to excel academically. The suspect claimed he wanted to demonstrate the dangers of such parenting by targeting a location associated with Japan's top university.
'I wanted to show parents that if you push too hard for your child to go to the University of Tokyo, your child could end up like me — committing a crime,' he was quoted as saying.
Todaimae Station is about a minute's walk from the University of Tokyo's Hongo campus in the capital's Bunkyo Ward, home to its iconic Yasuda Auditorium and several academic departments.
The victim, a 20-year-old third-year male student, sustained non-life-threatening injuries after being slashed with a kitchen knife on the platform of the station, through which Tokyo Metro's Namboku Line runs, at around 6:53 p.m. on Wednesday. He told police he did not know the attacker, and no prior connection between the two has been found.
Investigators believe Toda traveled from his home in Nagano Prefecture to Tokyo on the day of the incident. A credit card receipt in his possession showed he had purchased a train ticket from Akashina Station in Nagano on the Shinonoi Line to Takao Station in western Tokyo, an interchange that connects to the Chuo Line.
Surveillance footage reviewed by police shows Toda wandering near the crime scene for approximately two hours before the attack. From around 4 p.m., he was seen stopping at a supermarket and convenience stores near Todaimae Station, buying drinks and loitering in the area.
He entered the station at 6:25 p.m. and carried out the attack less than 30 minutes later.
Translated by The Japan Times
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