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Japanese 'Joker' gets 23 years in jail for Halloween attack

Aug 01, 2023 (firstpost.com) - A court in Tokyo on Monday sentenced a man to 23 years in jail after finding him guilty of attempted murder and starting a fire on a train in the Japanese capital while dressed as comic book villain– the Joker.

The verdict for the 2021 Halloween attack was handed down by the Tokyo District Court’s Tachikawa branch, a spokeswoman for the court told the media.

Twenty-six-year-old Kyota Hattori was convicted of stabbing a male passenger in his 70s and trying to kill 12 other people by starting a blaze inside a passenger train, Jiji Press and other local media said.

Hattori had reportedly told investigators that he wanted to kill people and be given the death penalty. He also told them he had spread lighter fluid in the train. ...continue reading

Source: ANNnewsCH

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Typhoon No. 18 brought destructive winds to the Amami region and areas around Okinawa's main island, with a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 54.5 meters per second recorded on Tokunoshima in Kagoshima Prefecture and homes damaged and power outages reported as the storm passed through the region.

A series of mysterious illegal dumping incidents involving about 39 kilograms of sliced bread has been reported around Mount Daisen and other parts of Tottori Prefecture in August, with officials investigating whether the food may have been deliberately placed to attract wild animals.

An 85-year-old couple have donated a combined 400 million yen to Osaka City with a request that the money be used to create a giant Myaku-Myaku statue about 20 meters tall at the former site of the Osaka-Kansai Expo, envisioning a landmark that could become a lasting symbol of the event and of renewed prosperity for Kansai and Japan.

Lawson plans to cut prices on its main line of onigiri rice balls by 10 yen from September 29 as falling rice prices begin to feed through to retail costs.

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Aichi Prefecture is seeking private-sector ideas for a vast mountain property in Nishio that has remained unused for 27 years after the prefecture spent 5.5 billion yen to buy the land for a project linked to the construction of Chubu Centrair International Airport.

A 39-year-old woman from Taiwan has been arrested on suspicion of pouring an oil-like liquid on the national treasure Buddha Footprint Stone at Yakushiji Temple in Nara in April, police said.

Japan executed 58-year-old death row inmate Sunao Takami on August 21 for setting fire to a pachinko parlor in Osaka in 2009, killing five people and injuring 10 others, in the first execution carried out under the Takaichi administration.

A 46-year-old woman employed at a chemical-related company has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly giving a muffin containing the designated deleterious substance acrylamide to a 30-year-old male acquaintance in Kyoto, police said on August 22.