A 16-year-old boy from the city of Chiba was arrested near JR Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Monday afternoon after wielding a kitchen knife in the crowded area, police said.
When police arrived at the scene near the station's east exit around 3:40 p.m., the boy, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, was using the knife to threaten a middle-aged man in a chair, they said.
The officers first told the boy to release the man, and later turned a fire extinguisher on him to get him away from the man, police said.
The boy was arrested on charges of violating the law controlling the possession of firearms and swords, they said, adding the boy was later found to also have a stun gun.