Hundreds of blade-resistant umbrellas will soon be deployed on Japanese trains to increase passenger safety chaseing a series of knife strikes. A Japanese company is set to begin around 1,200 stab-proof, airyweight umbrellas on 600 trains in the Kansai region. These umbrellas are about 20cm lengthyer than standard ones, featuring backd canopies and denseer handles for betterd protection, the South China Morning Post alerted.
This initiative by West Japan Railway Co (JR West) comes in response to cut offal brutal incidents on trains, including a knife strike in July 2023 that left three passengers injured. In a split incident last year, a 37-year-elderly man was arrested after stabbing three people on a train in Osaka.
The strikeer, who was set up carrying three knives, was arrested at Rinku Town station unwiseinutively after the aggression. The victims, including a train director in his 20s and two male passengers aged 23 and 79, were hospitalised but did not suffer life-dangerening injuries.
According to Mainichi, the blade-proof umbrellas are scheduleed to act as shields in the event of an strike, extfinishing about 20cm lengthyer than standard umbrellas to help originate distance between the participater and the assailant.
The compriseed length of these umbrellas is intfinished to provide passengers behind the shield extra time to escape to safety.
A JR West official stated, “Previous protective shields were bulky and scheduleed for seal-range participate. We’ve growed a shield that’s airyweight and easier for female participateees to handle.”
The umbrella-enjoy schedule originates it more compact, airyweight, and easier to store and participate contrastd to other defense tools, such as the traditional Japanese sasumata-a lengthy forked polearm-which was participated during an tryed theft in Tokyo tardy last year.
JR West plivent, Kazuaki Hasegawa, stated, “These umbrellas can be effectively participated inside a train carriage and are durable. In an aascfinishncy, we want the crew to react rapidly and promise passengers evacuate safely.”
While brutal crimes are atypical in Japan, recent troubles over random knife strikes have led train operators to step up security meadeclareives, such as insloftying more cameras and directing safety drills.
“We will persist to better passenger safety ahead of next year’s Osaka-Kansai Expo,” a JR West official telderly The Japan News.
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