Violence in Public Places in Japan

Japan's NHK Broadcasting Corporation reported that one person was killed and two others injured Sunday morning in a stabbing incident inside a small store in Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido. The report indicated that one of the store employees from the Seicomart chain told local police that a man used what appeared to be a kitchen knife in an aggressive manner just before 7 a.m. local time. Three employees of the store, aged between their 40s and 60s, were stabbed, and a man in his 40s was taken to the hospital where he later died. The broadcast stated that the other two injured, a man and a woman, did not lose consciousness. Additionally, a 43-year-old unemployed man was arrested at the scene on charges of attempted murder. In January, three men were injured in a stabbing incident in the tourist area of Akihabara in Tokyo, but public violence remains relatively rare in Japan.