Police have arrested a teenager for allegedly fatally pushing a man off a train platform in the western Japanese province of Okayama the day before.
The 18-year-old suspect allegedly pushed a 38-year-old local government official, Kuniaki Kariya, onto a train track last Tuesday.
The man was run over by a train and died of hemorrhagic shock at a hospital.
The teen suspect, who recently graduated from a local high school, told police he went to the station that day mulling over killing someone. He had a 12-centimetre knife and told the police that he intended to stab someone.
The crime comes after a series of random killings that has sent shocks across Japan and concerns about crime in the gun-free nation that was once known for its public safety.
Last Sunday, in Japan’s central Ibaraki province, a 24-year-old man went on a stabbing spree near a train station that ended up killing one and injuring seven.
Masahiro Kanagawa turned himself in later that day. He told police he had intended to kill his sister but ended up killing whoever was nearby because she was nowhere to be seen.
Kanagawa was already wanted by the police for allegedly killing 72-year-old Yoshikazu Miura on March 19.
The Japanese public were shocked to learn that the police failed to prevent the subsequent stabbing spree even though about 170 officers had been mobilized in search of Kanagawa.
Kanagawa escaped the multiple-stabbing scene before police arrived but turned himself in later on Sunday. A suspect for another random stabbing is still on the run in the central Japanese city of Nagoya. He stabbed Yasuko Nakatani, 36, in the back with a knife on the street early on Monday as he approached her from behind on a bicycle. She survived the attack.
Last Friday, a high school student in the northern Japanese province of Iwate was arrested on suspicion of stabbing a 17-year-old female student. She sustained serious injuries. The 17-year-old put a knife to the student’s stomach on the street early on Friday morning. The teen was arrested later on the same day at his home.