A man was arrested in the Japanese city of Osaka after allegedly plowing his car deliberately into seven schoolchildren on Thursday, local media said.
The children, who had been on their way home from school, were injured and rushed to hospital but all seven remained conscious, public broadcaster NHK and other outlets said.
The driver, Yuki Yazawa, is a 28-year-old unemployed man who lives in Tokyo and was driving a rental car. Osaka police arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder, the reports said, citing unidentified investigative sources.
NHK said the man admitted the charges to police and stated that he was "fed up with everything, so he rammed the car into them thinking to kill someone".
The car was "zigzagging" as it hit the children, with one girl "covered in blood and other kids suffering what appeared to be scratches", a witness told Nippon TV.
The man was wearing a surgical mask and "looked like he was in shock" after he was dragged out by school teachers, Nippon TV quoted a witness as saying.
Violent crime is rare in Japan but shocking incidents do sometimes occur.
In 2008, Tomohiro Kato rammed a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd of pedestrians in Tokyo's Akihabara district, before getting out and going on a stabbing spree, in an attack that killed seven people.
"I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter who I'd kill," he told police at the time.
Kato was later sentenced to death and hanged in 2022.
© 2025 AFP
18 Comments
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Guy_Gin_and_Tonic
Here’s hoping he dies in jail. There are so many words I want to write about him right now but can’t. Those poor, poor kids. God, I hope they aren’t too badly injured.
Fighto!
I just hope those kids will all be OK. The terror they must have felt - and their teachers and families - is something I never wish on anyone.
Agreed with above : this animal needs to expire in prison. Why don't all these types do everyone a favour and head into the nearest forest with a length of rope before harming good people?
WoodyLee
Why do these Lunatics resort to killing or attacking the young and vulnerable instead of just ending their own MISERABLE lives!???
chatanista
Fully agree. Shocking.
Jaswinder Sandhu
These kind of mentally defeated people are targetting innocents all over the world probably to feel powerful as they have been thwarted by the families and society around them. They should be tried for murders/attempted murders, nothing less than that.
grc
No amount of yelling for the retention of the death penalty makes any difference
SDCA
No amount of stress is an excuse for this maniac's actions. I hope Osaka's prison treats this man how he treated those undeserving children. Wishing for a swift and full recovery for the children involved.
Cephus
"Why do these Lunatics resort to killing or attacking the young and vulnerable instead of just ending their own MISERABLE lives!???"
Because they are cowards who can't face reality.
Ego Sum Lux Mundi
His soul must be in torment to have perpetrated such a despicable act.
TokyoLiving
Good for the children still alive..
That scumbag don't deserve to live anymore..
@Japan Glimpsed
That describes more than one world leader.
OssanAmerica
Another one who couldn't just kill himself, but has to harm others.
asdfghjkl
Hope he dies a slow torturous death if he is not given a death sentence.
kohakuebisu
This is depraved. Fingers crossed for the kids.
Alongfortheride
Why drag out the sentencing, there is no doubt he did it, admitted he wanted to kill someone so he could be in court tomorrow, found guilty, sentenced and in a box the day after.
Tokyo Guy
I might be imagining things, but aren't there more of these stories than usual recently?
That's not a dig at the website; they just report what's going on. But it's like people are getting more and more deranged and doing more and more of these heinous things. Family members killing each other, people using cars as weapons.
Have to wonder if there's some underlying cause.
Alongfortheride
Or perhaps certain media sites don't want to post anything positive. They only want to report negative things to make people hate more.
@Japan Glimpsed
Do you. Not performative, this outrage?
Do you know anything about torture?
Perhaps you were born after Saddam, Abu Ghraib, Syria..
Here's a link for your education:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/29/viktoriia-roshchyna-ukrainian-journalist-death-russian-prison
Let's make this clear: don't be a flag waving moron advocating casual torture.