Tokyo, May 7, 2025 — At approximately 6:50 p.m. on May 7, 2025, the Metropolitan Police Department received multiple emergency calls reporting a man wielding a knife at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line in Bunkyō Ward, Tokyo. According to investigative sources, the suspect attacked passengers inside a train car, injuring two men.
The victims, whose identities have not been disclosed, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to a hospital for treatment. The suspect, a 43-year-old unemployed man, was apprehended at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder.
Witnesses reported that the suspect, unknown to the victims, swung a kitchen knife at passengers within the train car. Passengers subdued the attacker before police arrived, facilitating his arrest. The police are investigating the motive, with preliminary reports suggesting the suspect may have been intoxicated. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have not released the suspect’s identity or additional details about the circumstances.
Tokyo Metro suspended Namboku Line service between Akabane-Iwabuchi and Ichigaya stations as of 7:20 p.m. for safety inspections, with operations resuming around 8:00 p.m. Todaimae Station, near the University of Tokyo’s Yayoi campus, serves approximately 25,870 daily passengers and is a key hub on the Namboku Line, connecting Meguro to Akabane-Iwabuchi and extending to Saitama.
Japan’s low crime rate, at 2.8 incidents per 1,000 people in 2023 per the National Police Agency, makes such incidents rare, though recent knife attacks, like the 2021 Keio Line and Odakyu Line incidents injuring 17 and 10 people respectively, have raised public safety concerns on public transit. The incident has sparked discussions on X, with users expressing shock and relief at the victims’ non-critical conditions.
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