Japan playing catch-up with proactive local governments in fight against hate speech
Towns, cities and prefectures have been taking faster action than the central government to eradicate ethnic discrimination since the 2016 enactment of the law against hate speech. Despite progress in municipalities where a sense of crisis is growing, including Kawasaki, the western Tokyo suburb of ...
Combating an unfounded fear of Japan's recluses
Although the term "hikikomori," which describes people who shun social contact and seek extreme degrees of isolation, has been in common use for several decades, it has taken on a more sinister cast recently as the media has come to view it as a ...
Support groups deluged by inquiries after Kawasaki and Tokyo murders involving social recluses
Following recent stabbing incidents involving middle-aged hikikomori, or social recluses, and their parents, the number of inquiries received by support groups and similar organizations that support such individuals has surged. A stabbing rampage in Kawasaki by a recluse and the murder of a reclusive man ...
An elementary school whose students were attacked in a deadly knife rampage last week in Kawasaki reopened Wednesday, with teachers and security guards keeping a lookout for pupils as they traveled to and from the school. Following the May 28 attack on children waiting for ...
Kawasaki knife attack suspect may have checked site four days before
Images of the man were captured May 24 by security cameras around the crime scene, as well as at nearby train stations.
The motive of the assailant who carried out a knife attack on Tuesday in Kawasaki that left two dead and a dozen others injured remains unclear even after police searched his home, investigative sources said Friday. Ryuichi Iwasaki, 51, who took his own life at ...
After Kawasaki attack, support groups worry recluses might all be painted with the same brush
Ryuichi Iwasaki, the 51-year-old suspect in a stabbing spree in Kawasaki on Tuesday that left two dead and 17 injured, is believed to have lived like a recluse, resulting in very limited interactions with other people and the outside world. Many people have raised concerns ...
Relatives feared Kawasaki stabbing suspect was becoming a social recluse
The prefectural police department believes that Ryuichi Iwasaki had scarce contact with others, and that he didn’t own a personal computer nor a mobile phone.
Following Kawasaki attack, attention turns to survivors' mental trauma
Even before a knife-wielding man attacked a group of elementary school students in Kawasaki on Tuesday, Japan had already seen news of children dragged into dreadful circumstances this year. Earlier this month, a vehicle plowed into a group of toddlers on a sidewalk in Shiga ...
Wielding knives in both hands, Ryuichi Iwasaki, 51, allegedly carried out the attack in Kawasaki before taking his own life with a self-inflicted stab wound, police said.
Lost lives in Kawasaki rampage: A good-natured schoolgirl and a Burmese-language specialist
Hanako Kuribayashi was known as being a thoughtful and good-natured girl, while Satoshi Oyama was recognized as a specialist in the Burmese language and a highly qualified Foreign Ministry official, before they were killed in Tuesday's mass stabbing in Kawasaki. The two fell victim when ...
Kawasaki stabbing rampage leaves three dead, including schoolgirl and suspect; 17 injured
Investigative sources said they detained a suspect after the rampage, a man in his 50s, who later died of a self-inflicted stab wound, they said.
