A recent spate of random stabbings has raised fears among the public, leading many to wonder: Are they increasing? Why would people attack at random? Could the next victim be me, or someone I care about?
On May 11, a 15-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly stabbing an 84-year-old woman to death in Chiba Prefecture, reportedly because he “just wanted to kill someone” so that he could be sent to a juvenile detention center to escape his troubled home life.
A few days earlier, on May 7, a 43-year-old man allegedly attacked a random student at a subway station near the University of Tokyo, Japan’s most prestigious university, because he reportedly wanted to show that overbearing parents with excessive expectations for their children to perform academically can push them into crime.
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