The Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court handed down the sentence on Kyota Hattori, 26, who was charged with attempted murder and arson offences. He admitted to stabbing a male passenger and starting the fire on a moving express train.
Prosecutors demanded 25 years, arguing that he planned to kill indiscriminately with the stated intent to get the death penalty and that “his motive was extremely selfish and deserving of strong condemnation.”
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Japan’s ‘Joker’ and ‘incel’ knife attackers in court over 2021 Tokyo subway incidents
Japan’s ‘Joker’ and ‘incel’ knife attackers in court over 2021 Tokyo subway incidents
His defence team sought 12 years, saying that by lighting the fire Hattori did not intend to kill 12 passengers who were riding in the train car in which the attack occurred.
According to the indictment, Hattori stabbed a man and attempted to kill other passengers by splashing lighter fluid around and igniting it on a Keio Line train around 8pm on October 31, 2021.
The stabbed man was briefly in critical condition, and his injury required around three months of treatment, it said.
During the trial, Hattori told the court he was so shocked when he learned that his girlfriend had married someone else only six months after they broke up that he decided to carry out the attack so he could end his life by receiving the death penalty, NHK public television reported.
He said his actions were inspired by a similar random knife attack in August of the same year on an Odakyu Electric Railway commuter train in which a man stabbed three passengers. That assailant was sentenced to 19 years in prison on July 14.
In the ruling, Judge Yu Takeshita said the attack was an “indiscriminate crime with a selfish motive that targeted many passengers who happened to be on the train.”
Gun-related crime is rare in Japan because of strict gun control laws, but there has been a series of high-profile knife attacks in recent years on subways and elsewhere, and there is growing concern about home-made guns and explosives.Train operators in major cities have stepped up safety measures, including installing security cameras in train cars and conducting more frequent safety drills.
In August 2021, on the day before the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, a 36-year-old man stabbed 10 passengers on a commuter train in Tokyo in a random attack. The man later told police that he wanted to attack women who looked happy.
The previous month, a 37-year-old man stabbed three passengers with a knife on an airport train in Osaka.
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