2021 Tokyo stabbings

What Happened

On 6 August 2021, a man began stabbing passengers aboard a commuter train on the Odakyū Odawara Line (小田急小田原線, Odakyū Odawara-sen) in Tokyo. The attack unfolded while the train was running through Setagaya ward (世田谷区, Setagaya-ku) in the south-west of the city. Ten people were injured.

The attacker fled the train at a station and left the scene. He was arrested hours later at a convenience store. The man was identified as Yusuke Tsushima (對馬悠介, Tsushima Yūsuke), aged 36 at the time of the attack.

In January 2022, prosecutors charged Tsushima with attempted murder, robbery and attempted robbery. The case went to trial, and on 14 July 2023 the court sentenced him to 19 years in prison. During proceedings, Tsushima's testimony raised the possibility that the attack was directed at women — a suggestion of femicide that shaped how the case was discussed publicly.

Background

The attack took place in the third year of the Reiwa era (令和, Reiwa), the period name adopted in 2019 on the accession of Emperor Naruhito. The setting was an ordinary commuter train on the Odakyū Odawara Line, one of the private railway lines that carries passengers between central Tokyo and the western suburbs. Setagaya, the ward where the train was travelling, is a largely residential part of Tokyo.

Violent crime on Japanese trains is rare, and the timing of the attack placed it within a period when several high-profile incidents on commuter rail had drawn national attention. The arrest at a convenience store hours after the stabbing, rather than at the scene, became one of the defining details of how the event was reported.

Why It Mattered

The attack injured ten people and ended with a 19-year prison sentence, handed down on 14 July 2023. The charges — attempted murder, robbery and attempted robbery — reflected that the attacker had also taken property from victims during the assault.

The suggestion, drawn from Tsushima's own testimony, that the attack may have targeted women gave the case a second life in public debate. It was discussed in terms of femicide: violence directed at women because they are women. That framing placed the Odakyū Line stabbings alongside wider conversations about gender-based violence in Japan.

The incident also became a reference point in discussions of safety on Japanese commuter rail, a mode of transport used daily by millions and long regarded as exceptionally secure.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name of the incident is 小田急線刺傷事件. Its kana reading is おだきゅうせんししょうじけん, and its romaji is Odakyū-sen shishō jiken.

The name is a compound of four elements: the railway line where the attack happened, the word for "line", the word for a stabbing wound, and the word for "incident". Breaking it down character by character:

• 小 — read o here. Meaning: small. It is the first character of 小田急, the abbreviated name of the railway company.
• 田 — read da here. Meaning: rice field. Together, 小田 read Oda, part of the place name from which the railway takes its name.
• 急 — read kyū here. Meaning: hurry, sudden, express. 小田急 (Odakyū) is the short form of 小田急電鉄, Odakyū Electric Railway.
• 線 — read sen. Meaning: line. 小田急線 (Odakyū-sen) is "the Odakyū Line".
• 刺 — read shi. Meaning: to pierce, to stab. It is the first character of 刺傷, a stab wound.
• 傷 — read shō. Meaning: wound, injury. 刺傷 (shishō) is a stab wound or stabbing injury.
• 事 — read ji. Meaning: matter, affair. It begins 事件, "incident".
• 件 — read ken. Meaning: matter, case. 事件 (jiken) is the standard Japanese word for a criminal incident or case.

Read as a whole, 小田急線刺傷事件 means "the Odakyū Line stabbing incident". The structure is typical of Japanese incident names: the place or line comes first, the nature of the crime second, and 事件 closes the compound. Note that 刺 carries the reading shi in this word rather than its more familiar reading sa (as in 刺す, sasu, "to stab"), and that 傷 is read shō rather than kizu.

Key Figures

Yusuke Tsushima (對馬悠介, Tsushima Yūsuke) — the attacker. Aged 36 at the time of the incident on 6 August 2021. Arrested hours afterwards at a convenience store. Charged in January 2022 with attempted murder, robbery and attempted robbery. Sentenced on 14 July 2023 to 19 years in prison. His testimony raised the possibility that the attack was aimed at women.

The victims — ten people were injured in the stabbing aboard the train on the Odakyū Odawara Line.

The court — the tribunal that tried the case, convicted Tsushima, and imposed the 19-year sentence on 14 July 2023.