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Police in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, said Thursday they have arrested a 63-year-old man for attacking a woman who was holding her baby while walking along a street on New Year's Day.
Fuji TV quoted a police officer as saying that the woman, 23, and her 10-month-old son, were walking at around 6:30 p.m. when a man approached from behind, threatened her with a knife and demanded money.
The man grabbed the woman's arm and she fell to the ground, holding onto her child. The man took her cell phone and fled.
The suspect, identified as Katsuzo Koyama, was detained by police about 800 meters away. Police said he had the woman's cell phone and knife with him and that he has admitted to the charge, saying that he needed money.
Police said the mother and child suffered light injuries when they fell.
© Japan Today
19 Comments
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oldman_13
Very unsettling reading about these sorts of things as it pertains to Japan.
kaimycahl
wow he needed money thats his reasoning for attacking her with a young child! What makes him thinks that she doesn't need money?!! Why waste time with this bum feed him to the lions at the zoo!
Bear27840
Is this a continuation to the one assault doing the same thing a few month's ago?
FightingViking
I can think of more "pleasant" ways of starting the New Year... Poor mother and child ! I hope they manage to forget this incident but I'm pretty sure, had it happened to me, I certainly wouldn't be able to !
Probably the 63 year old man is a victim of "abenomics"... I know I'm headed that way ! (But not to worry ! I'm not the attacking kind !)
Disillusioned
The geriatric crime wave continues in Japan.
sillygirl
What is the count now? One of these a week? Getting very nervous.
NathalieB
Attacking a woman carrying a baby is just the lowest of the low. Right down there with people who beat up on children.
smithinjapan
oldman: "Very unsettling reading about these sorts of things as it pertains to Japan."
I would think it would be upsetting anywhere, and besides, this kind of thing is pervasive in Japan. There's no English translation for "toorima", after all.
I'm just glad the woman and her child were not badly hurt, and that the guy was caught.
funny car
Japan has 127 million people and has some of the most crowded urban centers on Earth. The only amazing thing is that stuff like this happens so little.
Mar044
shame this happened, sigh, but such things happen in a population as dense, at least japan can still be proud to be called the safest city in the world.
sadly because of low crime these things standout more, after all, all you hear in western news is about killings everday, when is the last time you heard something like this on the as mainstream news.
smithinjapan
funny car: "The only amazing thing is that stuff like this happens so little."
No kidding! You only read about it practically every day. And those are only the reported (to media) cases. Seriously, how many times have we read, "I just wanted to hurt a woman" or some other such excuse after a random slashing incident?
Elbuda Mexicano
I'm so happy and baby were not killed by this old geezer!! He has no money ?? Go to to Fukushima!! They can not find enough workers to clean up that nuclear mess!!
nath
Exactly. You wouldn't even see minor incidents like this in the national newspapers of other countries, because there would be so many other more serious crimes being reported instead. I love it that Japan is safe that the only crimes they have to run in the national news are relatively minor ones like this.
nigelboy
They are reported statistically by NPA. There aren't many. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/NORMAN/20080801/1218012927
No wonder it makes the news.
smithinjapan
Strangerland: "Exactly. You wouldn't even see minor incidents like this..."
You call a woman being attacked by knife-point while holding an infant a 'minor incident'?
nigelboy: "There aren't many."
That are reported, no.
nigelboy
???? Stange post. Reported to whom?
Isa Kocakarın
Wow so many crimes happening at kanagawa nowadays.
nath
Compared to the incidents that appear in the national news in other countries? Most definitely. Other countries would be reporting all the murders that would be going on. This wouldn't even make the local news in some cities. Definitely a minor incident. I'm glad that Japan is so safe that it's a major incident here, because the alternative would mean we actually do live in a dangerous country, instead of the bastion of safety that is Japan.
WA4TKG
Too bad I wasn't still living there in Zama area. I used to ride ( cycle ) the streets about that EXACT time, coming home from work over at Atsugi....I would have been HAPPY to help out.