crime

16-year-old arrested for injuring 6 students in school classroom in Fukushima

48 Comments

Police on Tuesday night arrested a 16-year-old youth for assault after he burst into a classroom at Haramachi Public High School in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Tuesday morning and injured six students.

According to police, the youth who was a student at the same school, was wearing sunglasses, a face mask and knit cap, when he burst into the first floor classroom just after 8 a.m., Fuji TV reported. A teacher who tried to stop him said he was swinging a hard object wrapped in a vinyl bag. Six students were injured. Two girls were taken to hospital for treatment, police said.

Police took the youth into custody just after 10 p.m. Tuesday. He has so far given no motive for the attack, local media reported.

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48 Comments
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It's great that most modern countries don't have such gun laws as America, otherwise the homicide rate would be much higher than the 500s.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Is this an updated story about the man in his 30's as some of the comments are the same as the one where there was no description except the man in his 30's. If this is an update, I must have been correct, you can not tell the age by looking at someone. For some reason this article tells of a boy being arrested but most of the comments are from the other story of the man in his 30's with no real description.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Prescription drugs.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Very interested in what his motive was, only understanding the motive will you be able to effectively create policies and laws that can deal with these incidents.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

JT please make a follow up report pleaseeeeeeeee

Is he the victim of bullying ? A victim striking back perhaps ? Or a wild-eyed teenager who doesn't like anybody ?

Questions questions ????

He could be a victim of harassment or bullying ? Or Wild child ? Who knows ????

He will start talking soon if the put him in a confined area with no sunlight.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If any story needs a follow-up, this one does. The botched age of the suspect aside, I really want to know why the student decided to do this but only with a weighted plastic bag instead of a normally fatal weapon. If you're going to "go postal", you normally don't try to mitigate things by choosing a normally non-fatal weapon.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They should charge him as if he was a 30 year old. Even someone at the age of eight should now better.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That's put a twist on the story.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Classic! Yesterday's report stated they were looking for a man in his 30's and today they arrested a 16 year old? Was that just a statement to throw the perp off guard?

Just put him out in the playground and let the kids he hurt dish out a bit of playground justice. It will do him much more good than the 'do you regret you actions' speech and a 'go home cos you are sorry' that he will get from the flops.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I am glad they caught the criminal. No matter what his age, he is a violent criminal and should be treated as such. Time to send a message. And i do hope that he is forced to applogize to the victims at the very least. He deserves to be shamed for this outrageous action. thanks for the good follow up Japan Today staff.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

One has to wonder if media is also fueling some of these attacks. The young guy gave to motive as to why he did this. Was he fuflfilling a fantasy of something he viewed on TV/news or was it fueled by the bullying issues that are present in the school systems here? Be interesting to see if they release his motive for this.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Fess up and be a man!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So much for the attacker being in his 30's as mentioned in a previous article. This is why eyewitness accounts are notoriously poor.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Now that we know he is/was a student anyone suspect bullying might be involved?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I am getting really sick of the total lack of security that my daughters school has. Compared to my sons kindergarten (two locked gates and intercom entry only) at the elementary you can just waltz on in whenever you want, gate always unlocked, intercom exists but never used.

Ive lost count of the number of times I have brought this up over the years and every time I am met with a "oh yes, yes, good point, we will do something about that" and then nothing ever gets done. The PTA just roll their eyes with an attitude of "oh, here we go, the foreign mother is on her security rant again - this is Japan honey! Youre safe here!"

3 ( +5 / -2 )

A 16 year old that "appeared to be in his thirties"?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Lol, the teachers couldnt stop a 16 year old

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I hope the kids get heal up and get some support from the community. Being so close to Fukushima I imagine their lives are a bit of a mess already.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I am sorry to hear about it, it was rough on the children i am sure in addition to the violence and injuries. One wonders what possible reason a random stranger would do such a senseless thing to innocent kids. It is beyond me to understand. I hope this will encourage schools to have better security, ie higher gates, many of them are higher than waist high and may need to be higher. Thanks for the article and keeping us up to date. And i see no reason to criticize Japan for an incident that is not isolated to that country alone.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Schools in Japan are a security nightmare. Yards of non-shatter-proof glass in every classroom, multiple entry-points, plenty of vacant classrooms and storerooms (courtesy of a shrinking population), and of course the standard Japanese disdain for locking doors and windows.

The only "weapons" in the school (those hoops on long poles that look like medieval mancatchers) are generally kept in the staff room, which might be a few hundred meters away from an outlying classroom, and there are no phones in classrooms, so in an emergency you'd need to run there and back... by which time it would be all over.

I'm not proposing making the schools into armed camps, but surely a little concern for safety would be good? Maybe a single layer of plastic sealant over the inside of the windows to stop a thrown rock turning the window into a thousand blinding projectiles, and the simple expedient of locking outer doors when school is in session, thereby requiring all visitors (and late students) to come in via the main office rather than just strolling in any entrance that suits them?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

From what I read in JT it seems that there are many attacks on Children in Japan. What causes these cowardly attacks? The children are some of the most defensless people and makes them easy targets. What is up with cowards that do this. Not just here, but through out the world. Again, my mind is boogled. Who put what in the Water!!??

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This is on the edge of the evacuation zone. People are witnessing bizarre social behavior in these areas -making the situation even more stressed. Maybe the Gov needs to step in and address the situation more and help with any psychological and/or medical issues. Difficult times for these people it seems.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The man was described as being in his 30s.

What's the basis for this eye witness account, given that the culprit was wearing sunglasses, a face mask, and a knit cap? He must have flashed his ID at some point so that his approximate age could be duly noted.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

He is not a man. Neanderthal, maybe.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Maybe the guy who attacked these kids was irradiated and lost his mind.

Either that or he was a parent who lost a child at that school and couldnt bear seeing other kids back.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I know they have training at school for just thing kind of thing, but exactly that sort of thing happened. I think all schools should beef up security for real and not just "go through the motions". These children must be protected. What a loser!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Still seems such a strange way to inflict harm: swing something hard in a plastic bag. Was it planned or someone who was passing and just flipped?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Anyone want to bet this was triggered by the stress of living in a nuclear ghost town?

It is NOT a nuclear ghost town. It's 35 km from Dai Ichi but the town exists and many people live there.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

if I lived in Minami Soma and I had school-age kids, I would have moved long ago. Who knows what stresses this intruder is under. I'm glad no one was killed, and hope the children recover soon. And that the perp is caught and either helped or banged up (or both), depending on his state of mind.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Why is the location of the school off topic? My first reaction was, "what kind of douche would do something to children whose quality of life already extremely negatively affected by the meltdowns of the nearby reactors?"

13 ( +15 / -2 )

Can't they give a better description? I have actually seen people in their 50's that look like they are in their 30's and I have seen people in their 30's that look like teenagers. The next thing on the description will be he had black hair, go figure.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Readers, no more pointless comparisons with the U.S. please.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If this had been the U.S.A., it might have been six students killed instead of injured.

-5 ( +13 / -18 )

I missed the location. Trauma time up north. No photofit of the guy, JT?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Stay on topic please.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

25 kilometers from Fukushima Daiichi. I hadn't realized they were letting kids attend school that close to the reactors.

17 ( +20 / -3 )

How on earth did he get over the waist high security gate? And yes, thank the gods morons like this don't have ease of access to guns. Anyway, I hope all the kids recover quickly, and while I doubt they have enough to catch this guy, I hope he messes up somewhere and does get caught.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Dis, med height, slim build, black hair, dark brown eyes help?

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

The man was described as being in his 30s.

Excellent description! That should narrow the suspects down to a few million in Fukushima. (roll eyes!) How come he got away? Was he nine feet tall and made of steel? An Olympic sprinter maybe? (roll eyes again!)

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Anyone want to bet this was triggered by the stress of living in a nuclear ghost town?

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Gun. Cleaver argument is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.....

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

Can only hope this doesnt spark any copycats.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Someone delivering a message maybe?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Thats a good point.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

By the way, the cleaver reference is to the killings in China where nut jobs on several occasions killed a bunch of kids with a cleaver.

I just think everyone is lucky this guy wasn't more determined to hurt someone.

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

Imagine if he had a cleaver....

I guess everyone would have a fighting chance then?

When you have a bunch of unarmed students and teachers, any armament is one-sided.

-33 ( +9 / -42 )

No guns allowed, so everyone have a fighting chance.

10 ( +18 / -8 )

Imagine if he had had a gun......

24 ( +29 / -5 )

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