Latest news with #educationalabuse
Malay Mail
09-05-2025
- Malay Mail
‘Tough love ruined me': Tokyo subway knife attacker says toxic parenting made him snap
TOKYO, May 9 — A knife-wielding man arrested in Tokyo this week wanted to warn parents nationwide that tough love can ruin their children, citing his own miserable childhood, Japanese media reported today. The 43-year-old has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly assaulting a man in his 20s on Wednesday at Tokyo's Todai-mae Station, near the University of Tokyo, Japan's most prestigious higher education institution. The suspect 'with the intent to kill slashed the victim's head and other body parts with a knife-like object that he was carrying, causing injuries', a police spokesman previously told AFP. When questioned, the suspect spoke of his demanding parents, who he said were obsessed with his academic achievement, local media said. Because of them, 'I stopped going to school and had a hard time' as a teenager, public broadcaster NHK and other outlets quoted him as telling investigators. 'I wanted to show all these parents trying to get their kids into Todai that if they go too hard on them, their kids can go reckless and become criminals like me,' he said, using a common nickname for the University of Tokyo. He chose Todai-mae Station for the attack, believing the top university is a byword for the concept of 'educational abuse' by overly competitive parents, the reports said. But he and the victim were strangers to each other, and he chose to attack the man 'because he happened to be nearby', according to NHK. Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world's toughest gun laws. But there are occasional stabbing rampages and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. A day after the knife attack, five staff members sustained minor injuries at a primary school in Tokyo after two men intruded onto the premises. And in 2021, a 24-year-old man stabbed a passenger and started a fire on a train in the capital on Halloween while wearing an outfit resembling comic book villain the Joker. Today, a 34-year-old man was reportedly arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly slashing a man with a knife in the city of Osaka, causing minor injuries. — AFP
CNA
09-05-2025
- CNA
Tokyo knife attacker blames toxic parenting: Reports
TOKYO: A knife-wielding man arrested in Tokyo this week wanted to warn parents nationwide that tough love can ruin their children, citing his own miserable childhood, Japanese media reported on Friday (May 9). The 43-year-old has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly assaulting a man in his 20s on Wednesday at Tokyo's Todai-mae Station, near the University of Tokyo, Japan's most prestigious higher education institution. The suspect "with the intent to kill slashed the victim's head and other body parts with a knife-like object that he was carrying, causing injuries", a police spokesman previously told AFP. When questioned, the suspect spoke of his demanding parents, whom he said were obsessed with his academic achievement, local media said. Because of them, "I stopped going to school and had a hard time" as a teenager, public broadcaster NHK and other outlets quoted him as telling investigators. "I wanted to show all these parents trying to get their kids into Todai that if they go too hard on them, their kids can go reckless and become criminals like me," he said, using a common nickname for the University of Tokyo. He chose Todai-mae Station for the attack, believing that the top university is a byword for the concept of "educational abuse" by overly competitive parents, the reports said. But he and the victim were strangers to each other, and he chose to attack the man "because he happened to be nearby", according to NHK. Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world's toughest gun laws. But there are occasional stabbing rampages and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. A day after the knife attack, five staff members sustained minor injuries at a primary school in Tokyo after two men intruded onto the premises. And in 2021, a 24-year-old man stabbed a passenger and started a fire on a train in the capital on Halloween while wearing an outfit resembling comic book villain the Joker. On Friday, a 34-year-old man was reportedly arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly slashing a man with a knife in the city of Osaka, causing minor injuries.
Japan Times
09-05-2025
- Japan Times
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
