A man accused of injuring ten people in a knife attack on a Tokyo commuter train on August 6 told police that he got enraged when he saw women who "looked happy" and wanted to kill them.
Reportedly, the 36-year-old man was apprehended in another area of Tokyo after slashing and stabbing passengers on a train on the Odakyu Line in the western part of the city at approximately 8:40 p.m. (1140 GMT) on Friday. A female university student was critically injured, while the others had comparably fewer injuries.
According to the Sankei newspaper, the suspect told police that he started getting enraged by happy women about six years ago. He revealed that he just wanted to kill a lot of people.
"I began feeling like I wanted to kill women who looked happy about six years ago. Anyone was fine, I just wanted to kill a lot of people," he claimed.
Other Japanese media outlets revealed similar details about the accused.
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In Japan, violent crime is rare, although there has been a recent wave of knife attacks by unknown perpetrators.
In a similar incident in 2008, a man in a light truck drove into a crowd in the renowned Akihabara district, then leapt out of the vehicle and began slashing pedestrians, killing seven people.