The occurred on the morning of 28 May 2019 in the Tama ward of

Kawasaki City is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the eighth most populated city in Japan (including ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, four blocks west of

Noborito Station is an interchange passenger railway station in the Noborito neighborhood of Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and the private railway company Odakyu Electric Railway. Lines No ...

. Two people were murdered, and 18 others were injured after being stabbed at a city bus stop by 51-year-old Ryuichi Iwasaki (岩崎隆一 ''Iwasaki Ryūichi''). After carrying out the attack, Iwasaki committed suicide by stabbing himself in the neck.

Incident

Kawasaki city fire department said it received an emergency call at 7:44 a.m. JST, and responded to an incident in which a man attacked students waiting at a bus stop with

yanagi ba ''Yanagi'' (柳) ("willow") can refer to: * Yanagi (surname), a Japanese surname * Yanagi missions The , or more formally the , were a series of submarine voyages undertaken by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second World War, to ...

, long and thin knives used in

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...

to prepare ''

sashimi is a Japanese delicacy consisting of fresh raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces and often eaten with soy sauce. Origin The word ''sashimi'' means "pierced body", i.e. "刺身" = ''sashimi'', where 刺し = ''sashi'' (pierced, stuck) ...

'' and '' nigiri sushi'', in both hands. The students targeted were identified by the

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

public broadcaster as all being girls. A bus driver who witnessed the attack claimed that they saw the man holding two knives and he had walked towards the bus before stabbing the children. Authorities told reporters the man attacked people randomly as they lined up to enter the bus. The Kawasaki Fire Department reported that sixteen elementary school students from Caritas Elementary School, a private Catholic school, and three adults were injured in the attack, separately from the suspect.

Perpetrator

, a 51-year-old man suspected of carrying out the attack, was believed to be a resident of Kawasaki's Asao ward. He was found lying on the ground of the scene, bleeding from a self-inflicted stab wound to the neck. The two bloodied sashimi knives were found nearby, and two more knives, a all-purpose knife and a ''

sashimi bōchō Sashimi bōchō, literally "sashimi knife" is a type of long, thin knife used in Japanese cuisine to prepare sashimi (sliced raw fish or other seafood). Types of ''sashimi bōchō'' include , , and . Similar to the '' nakiri bōchō'', the st ...

'' were found in a backpack that had been in his possession and dropped at a nearby

FamilyMart is a Japanese convenience store franchise chain. It is Japan's second largest convenience store chain, behind 7-Eleven. There are now 24,574 stores worldwide in Japan, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Its ...

. The suspect was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Iwasaki was an unemployed ''

hikikomori , also known as acute social withdrawal, is total withdrawal from society and seeking extreme degrees of social isolation and confinement. ''Hikikomori'' refers to both the phenomenon in general and the recluses themselves. ''Hikikomori'' ha ...

'', which is someone who takes withdrawing from society to an extreme. He was living in his elderly uncle's home. Before the incident, he had a dispute with his neighbors but would not talk with his uncle about what had happened.

Victims

The deceased were identified as , an 11-year-old student, and , a 39-year-old

Foreign Ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

employee who worked primarily as a diplomat to

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. They were declared dead at . Some survivors were also treated at this hospital, as well at St. Marianna University School of Medicine, , and .

References

{{Mass stabbings in the 2010s 2019 murders in Japan Crime in Kanagawa Prefecture Crimes against children Deaths by stabbing in Japan History of Kanagawa Prefecture Kawasaki, Kanagawa Knife attacks Mass stabbings in Japan May 2019 crimes in Asia Murder–suicides in Japan Stabbing attacks in 2019 Suicides by sharp instrument in Japan 21st century in Kawasaki, Kanagawa

Incident

Perpetrator

Victims

See also

References