One Killed, 2 Injured in Knife Attack on Shinkansen Train

June 10, 2018

Tokyo- A man was killed and two women were injured in a rampage that happened on a Shinkansen bullet train on Saturday night, shortly after the westbound train departed from Tokyo Station.

Around 9:50 p.m. (12:50 p.m. GMT), a passenger of the Nozomi No. 265 train on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line made an emergency call to police, saying that there is a knife-wielding person on the train and people are bleeding. The assault occurred while the train, which was bound for Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, was traveling on the section between Shin-Yokohama and Odawara stations, both in Kanagawa Prefecture, adjacent to Tokyo.

According to the Kanagawa prefectural police department and other sources, three passengers of the train were attacked.

The three people were sent to hospital. But one of them, 38-year-old corporate employee Kotaro Umeda, from the city of Amagasaki in the western prefecture of Hyogo, died. He was slashed mainly in the neck. The other two, both women in their 20s, suffered minor injuries in the head or shoulder, but are conscious.

The Kanagawa police arrested the 22-year-old male attacker, Ichiro Kojima, a resident of the city of Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, at Odawara Station, where the train made an emergency stop, for alleged attempted murder of the male victim. The police department will investigate details, including his motive, by switching his charges to murder.

Umeda is believed to have been attacked when he tried to stop the suspect from assaulting female passengers with a hatchet-like weapon, police sources said.

In police questioning, Kojima admitted carrying out the assault, saying that he did it as he was feeling frustrated and that he randomly attacked people on the train, according to the sources. Kojima said that he is not acquainted with the three victims. The police suspect that Kojima had a strong intent to kill.

The Kanagawa police will conduct an autopsy on the male victim to determine the detailed cause of his death. There are dozens of wounds on and around his neck, the sources said.

The attack occurred in car No. 12 of the 16-car train, which was carrying some 880 passengers. The police seized a weapon when they arrested Kojima. Another weapon was found at the crime scene.

The suspect is believed to have boarded the train at Tokyo Station. He had a ticket to Nagoya Station in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi.

After making the emergency stop at Odawara, the Nozomi No. 265 train traveled to Mishima Station in Shizuoka Prefecture, next to Kanagawa, and passengers transferred to following Shinkansen trains at the station.

When he was around 14 years old, Kojima was admitted to a child support facility as his relationship with his parents deteriorated, relatives said.

After attending a vocational training school, Kojima joined a machinery repair company headquartered in Saitama Prefecture, eastern Japan, at the age of around 19 and worked in the western prefecture of Ehime. But he quit the company when he was around 20, they said.

Two years ago, Kojima started to live with his grandmother, 81, uncle, 57, and the uncle's wife. Having had a lot of problems with them, however, he has frequently run away from home.

According to the grandmother and others, Kojima has often said, "I want to die." He has also been heard saying, "I'm worthless."

Among past incidents that happened on bullet trains, a 71-year-old man in June 2015 committed suicide on a westbound Nozomi train on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line by throwing gasoline over himself and setting it alight when the train was traveling also on the section between Shin-Yokohama and Odawara.

In addition to the man, a female passenger, 52, died, being involved in the fire.

Following the incident, Central Japan Railway Co., better known as JR Tokai, which operates the Shinkansen line, announced a decision to move up its plan to install more security cameras in its bullet trains. Jiji Press