Photo/Illutration Few parents accompany their children to school in Nagano at 8:23 a.m. on Jan. 27, but volunteers keep watch. (Nobufumi Yamada)

NAGANO—Although a suspect is in custody over the deadly stabbing rampage here, many parents, children and communities remain anxious because of emails threatening additional attacks.

Nagano prefectural police believe the email threats, accompanied with demands for money, were sent by people unrelated to the case who are just trying to exploit the situation.

However, fears are lingering, and many adults will not take chances with the safety of their children.

On the morning of Jan. 27, a day after the arrest of Yusuke Yaguchi, 46, police officers were seen standing guard at the front gate of an elementary school located near the scene of the Jan. 22 attack.

After escorting their children to the school, parents and guardians expressed cautious optimism that a sense of normalcy would soon return.

“I am very happy. For the moment, I am relieved,” Yusuke Iwai, 45, chairman of the PTA at the school, said about the arrest.

However, because of a threatening email, the elementary school has decided to stay vigilant. Adults will continue to accompany the pupils to and from school until Jan. 30.

Many children were absent from school after the stabbing attack that killed one person and injured two others near a bus rotary in front of JR Nagano Station.

Although photos of the suspect were widely distributed to the public, he remained at large until Jan. 26.

Iwai’s 12-year-old son said he remains anxious.

“I hope the threatening email incidents will be resolved soon so that we can feel relieved,” Iwai added.

Nagano prefectural police sent Yaguchi to prosecutors on Jan. 27 on suspicion of attempted murder. He has talked to investigators but remains silent about the incident, sources said.

THREATENING EMAILS

One threatening email was sent late at night on Jan. 22 to the prefectural government’s website.

“I am the one who stabbed three people at the station, and I will stab women and children in Nagano Prefecture by Jan. 30. Transfer 18.13 million yen ($116,245) to my account,” the email said.

A prefectural official noticed the email the following day and informed the police.

Municipal governments in the prefecture have also reported email threats.

Similar emails were sent to several municipalities around Kita-Kyushu in December last year, after a junior high school girl was stabbed to death and her friend was injured in a knife attack at a fast-food restaurant there.

A Nagano woman in her 40s with a daughter in the fifth grade of elementary school said the girl has started to say she is worried about going outside.

“I can’t be happy yet because the suspect behind the threatening emails has not been arrested,” the mother said with a trembling voice. “I want to return to the normal days before the incident.”

At another elementary school in the city, some parents drove their children to and from school on Jan. 27.

However, most of the children who were on foot were unaccompanied.

“After the (stabbing) incident, many parents went to the school with their children. But after the suspect was arrested, there have been fewer of them,” a man in his 60s who volunteered to watch over the children said. “I was hoping that things would return to normal, so I’m relieved.”

After the stabbing, the city’s board of education asked parents and guardians to escort their children to school as much as possible. The board also said children would not be marked as “absent” if they refrained from going to school due to anxiety.

Around 4,800 students at public elementary and junior high schools in the city stayed home when the suspect was on the loose.

The education board said that from Jan. 27, children would go to school in the same way as before the stabbing attack.

But it has allowed each school to decide how to treat absences depending on their circumstances.

(This article was written by Nobufumi Yamada and Shomei Nagatsuma.)

Related News