TOKYO: Tokyo District Court’s Tachikawa branch on Monday sentenced a 26-year-old man to 23 years in prison for perpetrating a knife and arson attack on a train in the Japanese capital during 2021.
The motive behind Kyota Hattori’s attack, as revealed by Presiding Judge Yu Takeshita, was his desire to be executed following his former partner’s marriage and relocation to an unfamiliar workplace, which had driven him to contemplate suicide, Japan’s Jiji Press reported.
The judge strongly condemned Hattori’s actions, labeling them as “heinous and despicable,” noting that he had carried out an “indiscriminate crime for selfish reasons, targeting the lives of many passengers who happened to be on the same train.”
Hattori faced charges of attempting to murder 13 passengers on Keio Corp.’s Keio Line rapid train through stabbing and arson.
During the lay judge trial, the prosecution sought a 25-year prison term, while the defence argued that a sentence of 12 years was more appropriate since the act of arson, in their view, did not amount to attempted murder.
The judge, however, recognised that 10 passengers, who were either in the same train car as Hattori or in the closest connecting part when he ignited his lighter, were indeed targets of the attempted murder.
In light of footage depicting a fire and explosion on the train, the judge emphasised the gravity of the crime, stating that “It was a heinous and despicable crime that could well have caused many casualties.”
The court heard that Hattori deeply stabbed a man, temporarily causing him to go into cardiopulmonary arrest, thereby putting his life in extreme danger.
The incident took place on October 31, 2021, around 7.55 pm, when Hattori attempted to kill a passenger in his 70s with a knife, and subsequently splashed lighter fuel towards 10 other passengers, igniting it with a Zippo lighter while the train was en route in the city of Chofu, with the intention to cause their deaths, as stated in the ruling.– BERNAMA-JIJI PRESS
