The 26-year-old man responsible for the "Joker" train attack on Halloween in 2021 was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Monday for attempted murder after he stabbed a man and committed arson on the capital's Keio Line.
Presiding Judge Yu Takeshita of the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court ruled that Kyota Hattori had stabbed the 72-year-old man and intended to murder 12 passengers by spreading oil in a train carriage and lighting it on fire.
According to the ruling, Hattori stabbed the man in the chest with a 30-centimeter survival knife at around 8 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2021, while onboard a train heading to Shinjuku Station. He then moved to a different carriage, where he spread the oil and ignited it, setting the train floor and seats on fire.