A 2-year-old boy suffered cuts to his fingers by a small box-cutter-like blade that was lodged between two seats on an Osaka subway train, police said Thursday.
According to police, the incident occurred on Tuesday. TBS reported that the boy was traveling with his mother on the Midosuji subway line that travels from Umeda Station to Yodoyabashi Station. After dropping a piece of candy down behind his seat, the boy tried to retrieve it and was cut by the concealed object.
While the boy suffered minor injuries to his fingers, police said they later uncovered not one, but multiple blades lodged between the seats where the boy had been cut.
TBS quoted police as saying they believe the blades may have been lodged between the seats on purpose. According to the Osaka Department of Transportation, so far this year, 49 cases of needles, pins, and other sharp objects lodged in subway seats have been reported.
© Japan Today
24 Comments
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some14some
very scary considering Bonenkai Season (forget-the-year-parties).
Speed
God I hope these kinds of incidents don't one day lead to those uncomfortable plastic seats on busses and trains in the US.
Kabukilover
A good reason to not fight for seats on Osaka trains.
kabukideath
Astounding what people will do en masse to innocent strangers.
Roxana A.
Unbeliavable. Another "not to do thing" to teach to our kids.
serendipitous
Roxana
You mean teach our kids not to put razor blades between seats or not to put their hands down between the gaps?
Frungy
Do they have any proof or is this just fear mongering? This is a serious question, because 49 sharp items in 11 months is a tiny percentage of commuters if one considers that almost every Japanese school kid has an art knife or carving tools or a math compass or scissors, etc... in their school bag. Kids use the trains a lot and tend to rummage through their bags to get stuff, so it is only logical the stuff falls out.
An item wedged between seats seems normal enough and it is only a matter of statistics that one of the 49 sharp items this year would fall and get wedged with the pointy end up.
I think the police are over-reacting and fear-mongering. What I DO worry about is that having said this they'll now inspire copycats to an entirely fictitious incident....
Amidalism
Frungy did you miss the part in the article where it said that there were multiple blades, not a single blade, found? Do your statistics still find it likely that multiple people dropped various blades in between the seat in the same area? It clearly sounds like someone had done this on purpose. As for 49 sharp items in 11 months being a tiny percentage - well, I believe that that is still 49 too many. I really can't believe that people are just walking around with sharp items that just conveniently happen to fall out of their bags and in between seats on a train.
nath
People get real. How many of you have dropped and lost a razor blade on a subway? Multiply that by 40 something times? This was obviously on purpose. Please get real.
In_japan
@ Frungy :
You missed this part.
Elbuda Mexicano
This is not good! Poor little boy! I do hope it was just an accident, but I truly doubt it.
AkashiAussie
Conveniently placed weapons for mugs on trains. But wow, imagine the payouts if you got stabbed on a Japanese train. I'd milk it to get free massages for the next two years. ;)
Knox Harrington
Mmm, they are pretty bright, these boys.
Seriously, Japan sure like to stick sharp objects into things. What's up with that? Do these people hang around the same trains/breadshops/konbini day after day in hope of seeing someone get hurt? What is the point of all this? The excitement? It all seems very infantile to me. Perhaps if these man babies threw away the DS once in a while and started interacting with real people, this behavior would all go away? One can only hope...
Oh, and why the hell is a 2 year-old given candy?!
kimuzukashiiiii
And what, the mother was going to LET him eat the candy after it had fallen down the back of a public transport seat?
Scrap that, 2 year olds should not be eating candy in the first place. You cant fit an apple down the back of a seat..
Heza!
I pray for the child's speedy recovery. And I hope that something is done to prevent this happening again.
nandakandamanda
There are some pretty dark and lonely people around. This may seem to them to be their only way to get back at the body of society, the pain of others giving them some strange satisfaction. I once found a blade wedged upright in the wooden staircase handrail at the college where I was teaching.
There have been incidents like this where blackmailers use such methods to get money out of railway companies, especially when they have a grudge.
In this case, however, it seems to be random, ie the former type of person doing this.
Either way I will think twice about pushing my fingers down into those gaps...
southsakai
I think you hit the nail on the head. I agree. Some real dark evil people around.
DudeDeuce
Just like idiots who dump nails on the highway or throw rocks from overpasses. I hope the perps get caught.
Frungy
.... I didn't miss this. A boxcutter knife consists of a series of small blades that snap off. If one got "wedged" down between seats it is entirely likely that a one or more of the blades might snap off, making the "multiple blades" part factually true but entirely misleading.
The fact that they ONLY list the boxcutter knife as the culprit and then go on to say multiple blades supports this interpretation.
Alex Einz
CCTV in trains please
Tiger_In_The_Hermitage
These acts are sick, people who do these mindless acts need to be punished. To harm innocent people, they should be treated like terrorist and shot on the spot, like the guy caught running in the UK metro after the UK bombing.
Knox Harrington
Alex Einz,
Yes, because that would help. More cameras won't solve a thing. They do not prevent crimes and as such are worthless.
Frungy
... so now you want to shoot school kids who drop the box cutter out of their school bags? Or someone who buys a new shirt and fails to notice that one of the pins they failed to remove lodged in the seat of the train?
That's what we're dealing with here people. There is no conspiracy, there is no "terrorist" trying to hurt people by (and seriously, pause to think about this for a moment) wedging blades down behind train seats. I mean who here has ever RAMMED their hand down behind a train seat? Because that's what you'd have to do to be seriously injured by this sort of tactic.
If you've ever dropped something down behind a train seat well... surprise, surprise, so did this person, and that something in their case just happened to be something with a point. It could be a brooch, an earring, a box cutter, or a sharp key. If you dropped something and are searching for it then I fail to see how it is so implausible that someone else dropped something too, and how that something could be sharp. Worst case scenario it is a surgical scaple and just brushing it cuts your fingertips.... far more likely its just moderately sharp and you feel the sharp edge and remove your hand.
The willingness of people here to believe the worst of their fellow human beings is utterly staggering, even when simple logic suggests a far more simple and reasonable explanation... that someone accidentally dropped something just like the object you just dropped and are now searching for.
Alex Einz
Yes, it would, they could catch the imbecile doing it...public transport is private here.. why shouldn't they watch their own shop ?