Bleeding man arrested after attacking Kyoto train station staff with knife

Independent

11-02-2025

An injured man reportedly attacked a staff member at a train station in Kansai region in western Japan on Tuesday.
The unidentified Japanese man, with a bleeding forehead, reportedly pulled out a knife and attacked a staff member at a train station in Seika in Kyoto prefecture around 6.30am on 11 February.
Station staff and bystanders reportedly subdued the man and alerted the police.
Local police arrested the man on suspicion of violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law. There were no injuries reported.
According to West Japan Railway, the incident led to cancellations and delays on the Gakkentoshi Line, impacting approximately 150 passengers.
Last month, a knife attack outside Nagano Station in central Japan left one person dead and two injured. A 49-year-old man died, while a 37-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman sustained injuries.
The stabbing occurred near a bus terminal outside Nagano station, according to the Kyodo News. The incident, suspected to be a random attack with no one targeted in particular, occurred near JR Nagano Station.
The suspect used a blade-like object to attack three people waiting for a bus near the station, police said. One of them, Hiroyuki Maruyama, a 49-year-old man, was pronounced dead in a hospital. Maruyama was stabbed in the left side of the abdomen and went into cardiac arrest.
Violent crime is rare in Japan due to its strict gun control laws. However, recent years have seen several high-profile incidents of random knife attacks and arson on subways.
In 2021, a 24-year-old man dressed as the Joker attacked passengers on a Tokyo train on Halloween night, injuring 17 people. He stabbed a man in his 60s, who was left in critical condition, and set a fire inside the train.
The suspect, who was later seen calmly smoking on the train, was arrested at the scene. He reportedly told authorities he wanted to kill people to receive the death penalty.