LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010619/tCB00V6337.html

Tuesday, June 19, 2001
Woman Slashes Kindergarten Teacher

    TOKYO-- A woman with a kitchen knife forced her way into a Tokyo
kindergarten and slashed a teacher before fleeing Tuesday, less than two
weeks after a man stormed an elementary school and stabbed eight children
to death.
    The teacher, a 23 -year-old woman, was slashed on her hands and leg
before the attacker fled, police said. The teacher was taken to the
hospital, but her injuries were minor.
    The school was not yet open for the day, and there were no children
near the school's back gate, where the early morning attack occurred.
Police said the attacker was believed to be a middle-aged woman, and
confirmed that she was carrying a kitchen knife.
    Reports said she may also have had attacked the teacher with a stick.

    No other details were available, and the motive of the attacker was
unknown. She was still at large several hours after the attack.
    The kindergarten, attended by about 200 children, was closed after
the incident and arriving children were sent home, said school official
Naoko Ezawa.
    The slashing comes amid heightened concern over the safety of Japan's
schools following the slaughter of the eight first- and second-grade
children at a prestigious elementary school in a suburb of Osaka, in
western Japan, less than two weeks ago.
    That attack shocked Japan and prompted calls from Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi and others for increased school security. Because the
attacker, Mamoru Takuma, had a history of psychological treatment, it has
also fueled a debate over the handling of suspects believed to be mentally
unstable.
    Takuma, 37, was accused in 1999 of slipping tranquilizers into the
tea of four teachers at the school where he worked as a janitor. Diagnosed
as a schizophrenic, he was never charged and was sent to a mental
hospital, which later released him.
    Koizumi and his Cabinet agreed last week on the need for tighter
security at the nation's schools, and the Education Ministry has
instructed all elementary, middle and high schools to re-evaluate campus
security.
    Many have begun posting guards, or closing their gates during the
day.
    The attack was Japan's worst mass killing since a deadly nerve gas
attack on Tokyo's subways six years ago, and the latest in a series of
fatal slashings in a country that has strict gun laws and has prided
itself on a low crime rate.
    A family of four was murdered in their Tokyo home in December, just
four months after a 15 -year-old newspaper delivery boy was arrested in
southwestern Japan on suspicion of stabbing three neighbors to death as
they slept. Two other fatal stabbings over the past year and a half have
occurred in schoolyards.

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

Japan has been on a kick to ban weapons, what now Knives. My heart goes out to the children that were killed, and the teacher. It simply shows that if someone wants to do you in, anything handy will do.

Ban all kitchen knife.

A gun must have caused this-BAN ALL GUNS!!!!

Do it for the children!!!!

ALL OF YOUR GINSUS ARE BELONG TO US!!!!

I wonder if this was a pre-ban or post-ban kitchen knife.  The kitchen knife when the bayonet-lug for mounting another kitchen knife is nasty.  They should only allow plastic kitchen knives.  No wait, they violate the Kyoto protocol as they are not made from cow poop, which is they only true biodegradable substance... something like that [>:/]

i belive it was a post ban kitchen knife being that all pre ban knifes have a size limit and are called kitchen utility knifes

BAN THE KIDS.....er....Knives!....er....schools...er....whatever.

I do feel for the kids, and the teacher.

Kinda makes me wonder what would happen in the US. Teachers with guns....HM.

http://asia.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/06/18/japan.attack/index.html

Copy-cat fears after Tokyo kindergarten attack
June 19, 2001 Posted: 5:39 PM HKT (0939 GMT)


 
The latest attack comes as Japan is still coming to terms with the June 8 Ikeda school massacre    
By staff and wire reports

TOKYO, Japan -- Police are searching for a woman who stormed into a Tokyo kindergarten wielding a knife, injuring one kindergarten teacher.

Police said they were called to Takachiho kindergarten in Tokyo's Suginami Ward at around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday (0130 GMT) , where a woman apparently attacked the female teacher before fleeing.

The teacher sustained injuries to her arms which police say are not life-threatening.

"The teacher is in shock because she, of course, never thought she would be attacked," said Kenichi Otsuka, director of the kindergarten. "But she has walked to the hospital on her own."

No children were at the kindergarten at the time of the attack -- roughly an hour before classes normally start.

The latest attack comes 11 days after eight children were killed and 13 students and two teachers injured, when a former janitor entered an Ikeda elementary school in Osaka and began stabbing students at random.

Police say it is too early to say what may have motivated Tuesday's attack but there were many fears that the Ikeda massacre could trigger copy-cat incidents.

That massacre shook Japan and may prompt Japan to stiffen its laws on crimes by mentally ill people and to barricade schools, now open to all.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said his government would lose no time in looking at changing the law following the school massacre earlier this month in the western city of Osaka.

The issue has been prominent in the Japanese media, with debate noting that authorities face the delicate task of balancing legal rights of mental patients with the goal of protecting citizens' safety.

Schools across the nation, which generally promoted an open-door policy with their respective communities, have stepped up security following the Ikeda massacre.

Fearing copy-cat attacks, they have posted guards at gates, added extra alarms or reinforced neighborhood patrols.

Takachiho officials say their kindergarten is no exception. After the Ikeda attack, they decided to introduce a 24-hour security patrol, especially when the kindergarten's gates had to be open.

However, local media reported that the teacher was attacked through the gate after the assailant tried to hand her a package and demanded her to open it.

Reuters contributed to this report.

WHEN KNIVES ARE BANNED,ONLY CRIMINALS WILL HAVE KNIVES........how will we cut up the sushi??????[grenade]

When you have all those Samurai Swords available to just anybody the public begins to see knives as weapons. Then there are all those "Samuria Kung-Fu" Movies to influence everybody and deaden them to violence. What do you expect?

They should Ban all Samurai Swords, except the dull wood sticks, at once! Who needs a Samurai Sword whose only use is to chop heads off!

This is definitely a "ban for the children!"

Swords are as heavily regulated as firearms in Japan, sorry to dissapoint you...

Knife attack on Japan schoolgirl
June 20, 2001 Posted: 9:05 PM HKT (1305 GMT)

TOKYO (CNN) -- Japanese police say a 7-year old girl was stabbed in the stomach with a fruit knife as she walked home from school Wednesday afternoon.

Police suspect that the girl was attacked by a 37-year old woman who lived in the same neighborhood, in the town of Kamiakutami, a suburb of Gifu City.

Gifu City is the capital of Gifu prefecture in central Japan, about 280 kilometers (175 miles) west of Tokyo.

Police say the girl sustained injuries that will require approximately a week to heal.

Wednesday's attack comes just one day after a teacher suffered minor injuries from a stabbing.

The teacher was allegedly attacked by a woman who thrust a knife through an opening in a gate at a Tokyo kindergarten before school began.

Less than two weeks ago, eight children were killed and 15 students and teachers were injured during an attack at an elementary school in western Japan.

Police are still searching for the suspect in Tuesday's stabbing.

They arrested the 37-year old after she asked residents at a nearby house to call police and report that a girl had been injured shortly after the attack

"A sharp knife is much safer than a dull knife."

Yeah, unless someone is trying to slash you with it.

I do like my knives to be sharp, but admit that dull kitchen knives have really saved me in the past.  Looks like I'm not the only one.

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Make mine a blonde Swedish Mauser.

[img]http://www.ginsu-knife.com/ginsu.jpg[/img]

That Ginsu 2000 in the middle looks like the .50 caliber of Japanese knives: [:O]

If ever there were a knife that needed to be registered, that is it.

Jay
Arizona