A 28-year-old man, who has been arrested for holding a Tokyo restaurant manager hostage and claiming he had planted a bomb in the establishment, said he wanted to copy recent train attacks, police said Sunday.
The suspect, Akito Araki, was arrested in the early hours of Sunday after holding the manager of a yakiniku grilled meat restaurant in Tokyo hostage. No one was injured, and only a fake bomb was found in the restaurant in Shibuya Ward, investigative sources said.
As Araki told the store manager that he wanted to copy the train attacks, police believe that the suspect may have drawn inspiration from the Oct. 31 attack on a Keio Line train in Tokyo in which a man stabbed a passenger and ignited a fire, and other similar attacks on trains.