Tokyo subway knife attacker charged with attempted murder: Police

TOKYO – Tokyo police said on May 8 they had charged a man with attempted murder after an alleged knife attack on the subway that reportedly injured two people during rush hour the previous day.

Yoshitaka Toda, 43, was arrested

on the evening of May 7 at Todaimae station in the Japanese capital on suspicion of assaulting a man in his 20s, a police spokesman told AFP.

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”, the spokesman said, reading from a prepared statement without elaborating.

Local media said Toda allegedly attacked the victim several times – first on the station’s platform, before the victim dashed inside a subway car where Toda chased him and slashed his head several more times.

Other passengers apprehended Toda, who was arrested by police on the spot, reports said.

Toda and the victim are not believed to have known each other, local media said, adding that one other passenger who helped apprehend the attacker also cut his hand.

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 24-year-old man stabbed a passenger and started a fire on a train in Tokyo on Halloween in 2021 while wearing an outfit resembling comic book villain, the Joker. AFP