Police said Friday they have arrested an unemployed 48-year-old man on suspicion of assaulting three male high school students in separate incidents Tuesday in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
According to police, the first incident occurred at around noon. Fuji TV reported that a 17-year-old student was hit by a man with a shopping basket at a convenience store in the ward's Funabashi district. The student's shoulder bumped into the man and he apologized, but the man swung his basket at the boy's his left cheek and then fled from the store.
About 30 minutes later, two other students reported being hit by a man near the convenience store.
The man in both cases was described as being in his 50s, about 160 centimeters tall, and he was wearing a gray knit cap.
On Thursday night, an employee at the convenience store contacted police to report that a man resembling the assailant was back in the store.
Police rushed to the store and took the man, identified as Katsumi Ono, into custody. Police said Ono has admitted to assaulting the students.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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TheGodfather
Fantastic detective work. Well done!! ;-)
Kobe White Bar Owner
I wonder if he was stressed out due to work or the lack of it?
Conspiracy Theories
Damn. I know things can get stressful, but there are other ways to deal with it. I feel sorry for the kid that got hit with the basket. He didn't deserve that.
carpboy
Gray knit cap... I think I've seen that guy. I can't wait to read him say that he wanted to know what it would feel like to hit a high school boy with a shopping basket... Or, that he was drunk.
Jim McBride
These are the stories we get on a slow news day :P
Monozuki
I watched the suspect on Japanese TV. Yes, I thought I wouldn't put it past him to assault young people like high school students hitting them below the belt.
At any rate, It's good to hear that he was arrested.
BurakuminDes
"I was stressed out/being bullied and wanted to let off some steam."/ "I was drunk and don't remember anything."
Take your pick.
sensei258
Near Ebina eki, I once witnessed a drunk ojisan assaulting a male kokose who had been minding his own business. One minute the kokose was sitting engrossed in his ketai, next minute he was karate kicking the ojisan. I didn't see how it started. A group of male kokose convinced the ojisan to leave.
serendipitous
Don't complain about crime in Japan if this is headline news!
FizzBit
Maybe the kid deserved it. The other two might have been friends and followed him. Maybe not. Sometimes punks need to be put in their place. Calling the cops for this?? They should have called their momee, or maybe Ampanman.
5SpeedRacer5
Sometimes, you are having one of those days, and a punk decides he is going to bump into you at a convenience store. I tell you, it is enough to make your blood boil. I have had it up to here with kids these days, with their fancy games and emojis, their newfangled punk music and these internets, wearing their Michael Jackson Lady Gaga fashions and talking back to their teachers. "Shi-ne!" they cry. The anthem of young Japan.
It's the TV doing it to them, too. All of the good old talents like Beat and Sanma and Harvey Pekar being pushed aside by these cross-dressers and smart-alecks. Where are they going to learn to hold their liquor and put women in their place? I remember when Degawa was the dimmest star of the talent firmament. Now everyone is worse!
The good old days are gone, but I still have my shopping basket and gray cap, and dagnabbit, when one of these young punks tries to push me aside, I will strike a blow for Yattai and high-tar cigarettes and one-cup sake. I will swing my basket and bloody the cheeks of that youngster. He'll be the better for it! I will not go quietly to the cash register.
I will rage against the coming darkness. Then I will go home. Then I will return to the store 30 minutes later and rage some more until the police come and take me away.
Rage.
ArtistAtLarge
Pure poetry 5SpeedRacer5.