By KYOTA TANAKA/ Staff Writer
June 27, 2023 at 18:37 JST
Yusuke Tsushima was arrested after an Aug. 6, 2021, stabbing spree on a Tokyo commuter train. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A man accused of going on a stabbing spree on a Tokyo commuter train admitted to the attack on June 27, but his lawyers plan to say he had no murderous intent.
Yusuke Tsushima, 37, has been indicted on three attempted murder charges in connection with the knife attack on an Odakyu Electric Railway Co. train on Aug. 6, 2021.
In the first hearing of his trial at the Tokyo District Court, Tsushima said there was “nothing wrong” in the indictment.
But his defense lawyers plan to contest prosecutors’ argument that he intended to kill his victims.
According to the indictment, Tsushima stabbed three passengers between the ages of 20 and 52 around 8:30 p.m. when the train was traveling between Noborito Station in Kawasaki, just west of Tokyo, and Soshigaya-Okura Station in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward.
Their injuries took between one week and about three months to heal. Seven other passengers also suffered minor injuries.
About 90 minutes after the attack, Tsushima showed up at a convenience store about 4 kilometers from Soshigaya-Okura Station and told an employee that he had stabbed the passengers.
Police called to the store detained him.
Tsushima has also been charged with robbery and attempted robbery over a can of beer stolen from a convenience store before the stabbing incident.
In another attack on a Tokyo commuter train, the suspect stabbed a passenger and set fire inside a Keio Corp. express train in October 2021.
Prosecutors said the suspect copied Tsushima’s methods for the attack.
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