KANAGAwA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested a 56-year-old man after he was found wielding scissors inside a Tokaido Shinkansen train on Wednesday, reports NHK (Feb. 20).
At around 4:30 p.m., an East Japan Railways guard tipped off police about “a man with scissors in an aisle” of the Kodama 660 train prior to its arrival at Odawara Station.
The man — later identified as Mikio Kikuchi, a resident of Nagoya’s Minami Ward — is believed to have used the scissors to cut a hole in a wall near a seat in the train, which was bound for Tokyo.
After the guard asked Kikuchi to hand over the scissors, he obliged. Upon the train’s arrival at Odawara Station, police apprehended he when he exited onto the platform. He was later accused of causing property damage.
No persons were hurt in the incident, police said.
Last year, a man fatally stabbed one person and injured two others inside a Tokaido Shinkansen train bound for Osaka. Following that incident, JR beefed up security on its trains. The guard who found Kikuchi with the scissors on Wednesday was on patrol as a part of the increased security.