 |
VOOZH | about |
|
VOOZH | about |
COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
March 27, 2026 at 08:00 JST
👁 Photo/Illutration
Police officers gather in front of the Sunshine City commercial complex in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district on March 26 after a fatal knife attack occurred at a Pokemon merchandise shop in the building. (The Asahi Shimbun)
A female employee at a Pokemon merchandise shop was stabbed to death in Tokyo's commercial complex on Thursday, and the suspected assailant also died after stabbing himself, shocking shoppers during children's spring break season in Japan.
The woman, in her 20s, was stabbed in her neck at 7:16 p.m. in a shopping mall by a man also in his 20s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. Both were pronounced dead at a hospital within an hour, police said.
Broadcaster TV Asahi said the woman was a store clerk of the Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo on the second floor of the Sunshine City building and the perpetrator was wielding knives in both hands.
Before Thursday's incident, police had received complaints from a person, believed to be the deceased woman, over alleged stalking, The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
Videos posted on social media showed shoppers running away from the site as ambulances converged on the building, located just a few hundred meters distant from the Ikebukuro terminal, one of the busiest train stations in Tokyo.
A man who was at the Pokemon shop, which was crowded with dozens of other customers including children, told the Asahi that he ran out when he heard a woman screaming for help and noise of shelves crashing down to the floor. When he turned back he saw a store staff with blood stains on his shirt and a man wearing black clothes forcing his way into a sales counter.
Japan's NHK public television said shoppers fled the area, while employees in nearby stores pulled down the shutters for safety.
Pokemon Co, which operates about two dozen stores in Japan selling merchandise from the popular franchise, said the store in Ikebukuro and its adjacent “Pikachu Sweets” cafe would be closed until further notice.
“We will prioritize our full cooperation with the police and our staff’s physical and mental care,” the company said in a statement on its website.
Strict gun controls in Japan mean knife attacks are a more common form of public violence, with multiple stabbing incidents on trains and at railway stations in the past few years.
Clerk stabbed in brazen robbery in Osaka in broad daylight
August 7, 2024Bear mauls supermarket employee in northern Japan
December 1, 2024Bear flees Gunma supermarket after mauling two shoppers
October 8, 2025Police uncover duty-free goods resell scheme but few charges laid
February 15, 2023Masked suspect caught after daytime heist at Kawasaki store
June 12, 2023Pokemon cards rise in popularity among collectors and thieves
June 14, 2023A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Some articles on this website may contain content generated by artificial intelligence programs.
Copyright © The Asahi Shimbun Company. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.
