Passengers panic after sushi chef drops knives on Tokyo train

TOKYO -- Passengers on a train in the Japanese capital went into a panic on Aug. 26 after a sushi chef dropped his knives on the floor by mistake.

According to train operator Keikyu Corp., a passenger on the firm's Airport Line hit the emergency stop button after the knives fell onto the floor, bringing the train to a halt at Anamori-inari Station near Haneda Airport, in the capital's Ota Ward. A passenger who had seen the man drop the implements then told station staff at about 6:38 p.m., "There's a guy with knives."

The Metropolitan Police Department's Kamata Police Station said that the man is a 54-year-old sushi restaurant worker.

The chef had a sashimi knife with an about 28-centimeter-long blade, a Western-style knife with a 25-cm blade, and a "deba" Japanese-style knife with a 15-cm blade, all in a drawstring bag. He was sitting on the train, and the knives apparently fell out of the bag when he missed his stop and panicked. The knives were in sheaths, but passengers who saw them began to run away and shout, "Knives!" causing a frenzy. The chef was apparently intoxicated at the time.

A police officer who happened to be on the same train questioned him. Kamata Police Station does not intend to pursue the case because the man had the knives for a legitimate reason.

(Japanese original by Maki Kihara, Tokyo City News Department, and Kouki Matsumoto, Science & Environment News Department)