Japanese police take down knife-wielding man at train station without using lethal force【Video】

Incident occurred at major train station in one of Japan’s largest cities.

Nagoya is Japan’s fourth-largest city, with a population of more than 2.3 million people, so you can pretty much count on Nagoya Station, the city’s main rail hub, having a lot of people in it at any given time. On Saturday morning, though, one of those people had a knife.

Slightly after 11 a.m., a man in jeans, a black T-shirt, and a hat was spotted walking through a common-use area of the station holding an 18-centimeter (7.1-inch) bladed instrument, which looked to be a cooking knife of some kind. His steps were aimless and unhurried, but the manner in which he held the knife pointing in front of him suggest he planned to use it on someone very soon.

Luckily, two police officers quickly arrived on the scene to deal with the threat.

The male officer, wielding a baton, put the man in a headlock with one arm, and appeared to subdue his knife hand with the other. Meanwhile, the female officer pressed in on the man with a clear plastic shield, preventing him from extending his arms away from his body. In the struggle, the man drops the knife, and after it clatters to the ground the officers take him down too and pin him to the floor while the female officer cautions and inattentive deliver person who bumps into them with his hand cart to stay back.

The officers’ quick intervention kept any innocent passersby from being injured, and comments for the video are full of gratitude for their courage and service.

“The female police officer sounds so cool when she’s telling everyone to stay back.”
“She’s really good with that shield.”
“That sort of thing has to be really scary for the police officers too.”
“I know they train for incidents like this, and it’s their job, but still, that takes a lot of guts.”
“They don’t use their guns for this? Japanese cops really have a lot of restraint.”
“Japanese police officers are very kind, much more so overseas ones.”

Several other commenters also voiced their admiration for the way the officers resolved the issue without using lethal force. However, the impressive display of taiho-jutsu at Nagoya Station notwithstanding, Japanese police officers do carry guns, and they’ve used them on people brandishing knives before, which makes the way this latest incident turned out all the more remarkable.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/Kyodo, YouTube/ANNnewsCH
Top image: Pakutaso
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