Aug 30 (Japan Today) - Given the general rarity of firearms in Japan, knives are frequently used by those looking to intimidate others or inflict violence.
And among those, kitchen knives are frequently mentioned in armed robbery reports, likely due to their imposing size and sharpness.
So these kitchen tools can be a cause for alarm when seen outside of their natural habitat, such as on an express train running along the Keikyu Airport Line in Ota, Tokyo, at about 6:40 p.m. on Aug 26. It was there that three kitchen knives fell out of a man’s bag, causing one panicked passenger to hit the emergency door cock, a lever that allows passengers to manually open carriage doors.
The train made an emergency stop at Anamori-inari Station so passengers could escape through the doors onto the platform. Some also called the emergency number 110 for the police or posted on social media that “there is a person with a knife” on the train.
All service was temporarily suspended on the Keikyu Airport Line for up to 40 minutes due to the commotion. However, it was quickly learned that the owner of the knives was simply a sushi chef in his 50s who was moving the blades to his new workplace. He was a little tipsy at the time and had dozed off while riding the train and a sashimi knife, regular kitchen knife, and a pointed carving knife known as a deba bocho that he kept in a drawstring bag had gotten loose and fell out when he moved. ...continue reading
Source: Kyodo
