<figure id="attachment_224894" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 5568px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-224894"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a6f04580"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/75c140d3601436d9bf49d9f8aa3af58a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-224894" class="wp-caption-text">The scene immediately after the incident. Police officers are hurriedly searching inside and outside the University of Tokyo.</figcaption></figure>
 Where did they come from?
 A little after 8:30 a.m. on January 15, Yasuo Watanabe, 82, owner of the liquor store &#8220;Takasaki-ya&#8221; in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, saw a strange scene in front of his store. The scene was on the street in front of the University of Tokyo&#8217;s Yayoi Campus&#8217; Noh Seimon Gate, which houses the Faculty of Agriculture. A young man dressed in a black student uniform was huddled near the gate and was being questioned by four or five police officers.
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 Mr. Watanabe recalls.
 I heard the sirens of fire engines and ambulances, so I went outside to see what was going on. It was the first day of the entrance examinations (the Common Entrance Examination for University Entrance), and I felt that it was strangely noisy. &#8230;&#8230; found that one person had collapsed behind the gate and another in front, and a police officer was calling out to them.
 An unprecedented stabbing incident took place on the street in front of the University of Tokyo, the highest educational institution in Japan. A 17-year-old male student in his second year of high school at a prestigious school in Aichi Prefecture cut three passersby one after another from the back with a 12cm-long kitchen knife, screaming, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to the University of Tokyo next year! I&#8217;m going to the University of Tokyo next year! The victims were a 72-year-old man in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, a 17-year-old female student in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, and an 18-year-old male student in Urayasu City, Chiba Prefecture.
 The perpetrator boy goes to one of the best private schools in Nagoya. Every year, many students are accepted to the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, and many of them go on to medical school. The boy&#8217;s motive for the crime is as follows. I was studying to become a doctor at the University of Tokyo, but my grades started to suffer a year ago, and I lost confidence. If I couldn&#8217;t become a doctor, I thought I&#8217;d kill someone and commit seppuku to carry the guilt.
 The boy had been missing since the previous day, the 14th, and his father had filed a missing persons report with the Aichi Prefectural Police. The boy, who went out without his parents&#8217; permission, said, &#8220;I took an express bus from Nagoya to Tokyo at 6 a.m. on the morning of the 15th.
 In addition to the kitchen knife, the boy was in possession of a folding saw and a knife.
 The boy had a folding saw and a knife in his possession. He also stated, &#8220;Before the incident, I set a fire at a station near Todai. He also stated that he had set a fire at a station near the University of Tokyo before the incident. As he testified, a piece of wood was burned at Todai-mae Station on the Namboku subway line, and a liquid that looked like an igniter was sprayed near the ticket gate. It is believed to have been committed by a juvenile. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has arrested the boy on suspicion of planning to commit indiscriminate murder.
<h2>No matter what was asked, his face was expressionless.</h2>
<figure id="attachment_224896" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 5568px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-224896"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="886717c4"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/ea54bd59e711d4d539ddab3f4db9d73d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-224896" class="wp-caption-text">Todomae station on the Namboku subway line, where the fire broke out. The fire was quickly extinguished.</figcaption></figure>
 What was bizarre was the boy&#8217;s behavior immediately after the crime. When a nearby security guard admonished him to &#8220;calm down, calm down,&#8221; he threw the knife to the ground and slumped down. He then threw the knife on the ground and slumped down, leaving his bag and other belongings by his side. Mr. Watanabe, the owner of Takasakiya, who witnessed the whole incident from across the main street, said, &#8220;The boy was wearing glasses and was unarmed.
 The boy was wearing glasses and had no expression on his face. The boy was wearing glasses and had no expression on his face, and would not answer any questions from the police officers who rushed to the scene. The police officer, who had lost his nerve, asked, &#8220;Where did you come from? The boy still did not answer. The boy still did not respond. The officers had no choice but to hold the boy by his sides and drag him to a nearby police station.
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 What was the background to the incident? What was behind the incident? University journalist Mineiji Ishiwata tells us.
 There have been cases in the past where students at prestigious high schools have become desperate because of poor grades. However, in most cases, the blame is directed at themselves or their families. I have never heard of a case where someone tried to kill random strangers.
 I believe that the Internet society and the new coronavirus have had an impact on this incident. What students of prestigious schools, who are subjected to severe competition for entrance exams, see on the Internet are extreme academic theories. They are influenced by the idea that the only way to succeed in life is to enter the University of Tokyo and even medical school to become a doctor. They don&#8217;t understand that Tokyo University is not everything, and that there is a way to live a happy life without becoming a doctor.
 Normally, they should confide their problems to their teachers or friends at school and resolve these prejudices. However, with more and more online classes due to the Covid-19 disaster, there are no more opportunities for face-to-face consultations. I believe that the perpetrator boy has amplified his biased thoughts in his mind. Even though his grades were down, he could have made up for it as much as he wanted if he was still a sophomore in high school. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;
 Ishiwata believes that a recent social phenomenon also had an impact on the boy.
 Recently, there have been a series of incidents in which people have cut down passengers on trains and set fire to clinics in crowded buildings. These are indiscriminate killings. The boy may have imitated them and thought, &#8216;If I&#8217;m going to die, I might as well involve the world. If I&#8217;m going to die, I might as well involve the world.
 The impact of the incident was huge. The impact of the incident was huge. Students had to take the examinations with a sense of anxiety.
<figure id="attachment_224901" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 5568px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-224901"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="78f8e652"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/86957482e643511ef730e29504363bdf.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-224901" class="wp-caption-text">Fire trucks and police cars rushed to the scene, creating a noisy atmosphere from the morning.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_224897" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 5568px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-224897"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="75544188"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/e54804404c0feb6527441ab0fbaf3c15.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-224897" class="wp-caption-text">Investigators check the street in front of Todai.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_224898" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 5568px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-224898"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8becda3a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/b6ebb1452a4067e80c0a2ca6e3154f73.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-224898" class="wp-caption-text">A police box near the University of Tokyo&#8217;s Faculty of Agriculture, where the first victim, a 72-year-old man, rushed to.</figcaption></figure>

 Shinji Hasuo

 An unprecedented incident occurred on the first day of the National College Entrance Examination. Three students were stabbed to death in front of the University of Tokyo in Hongo, Tokyo. The assailants were sophomores at a very prestigious high school in Aichi Prefecture. An eyewitness sees the boy's bizarre behavior immediately after the incident.

Stabbing incident in front of Tokyo University: High school sophomore from a prestigious school in Aichi &#8220;behaved strangely right after the crime&#8221;.

Stabbing incident in front of Tokyo University: High school sophomore from a prestigious school in Aichi “behaved strangely right after the crime”.

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