Police arrest pupil suspected of hammer assault at a Tokyo college

A police automobile sits on the entrance to Hosei College’s Tama campus after a girl brandished a hammer inside a classroom, in Machida within the western suburbs of Tokyo on January 10, 2025. Eight individuals have been wounded in a hammer assault at a college in Tokyo on January 10, with a 22-year-old pupil arrested on the scene, Japanese media mentioned.
| Photograph Credit score: AFP

Japanese police arrested a pupil suspected of a hammer assault at a Tokyo college, which native media mentioned left a number of injured.

The 22-year-old South Korean sociology pupil was apprehended on the spot for allegedly attacking a male pupil throughout class at Hosei College’s Tama campus in Tokyo’s western suburbs on Friday, inflicting him minor accidents, in response to the Tokyo metropolitan police.

Japanese media mentioned seven extra college students suffered minor accidents because the suspect allegedly hit them in succession. It was not clear whether or not her actions have been premeditated.

Kyodo Information company reported that the suspect informed investigators she felt “annoyed” after being ignored and bullied by her classmates and used a hammer she discovered on campus.

Practically 150 college students have been in school that day and one informed Kyodo the attacker appeared to swing the hammer aimlessly, hitting these seated within the final row within the classroom, and that everybody ran away. One other mentioned her face was expressionless and he or she didn’t appear to be focusing on somebody particularly, in response to the company.

Police mentioned an investigation was nonetheless ongoing with out offering additional particulars.

Koreans nonetheless generally face discrimination in Japan due to the bitter previous between the 2 international locations, stemming from Japan’s brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula, which resulted in 1945 with Japan’s defeat in World Struggle II.

Severe crime in Japan is uncommon however random stabbing and capturing have occurred in recent times.

In December, a junior highschool pupil was stabbed to demise and her pal injured whereas queuing up at a McDonald’s restaurant within the southwestern metropolis of Kitakyushu in an alleged random assault, wherein a person was later arrested.

In 2022, three individuals, together with two college students on their approach to take entrance exams, have been stabbed exterior of the College of Tokyo. A 17-year-old pupil was arrested and later convicted of tried homicide.