A man was arrested in Akihabara the other day for apparently slashing a police officer after attempting to flee from officers that had found a knife in his bag. The knife in question was a tool knife with a 3-inch blade – a weapon that wouldn’t be very useful if one wanted to go on a psycho knife rampage.

The police officer hurt while trying to stop the man suffered only light injuries to one of his hands. According to a post on Akiba blog, the Asahi Shinbun’s coverage of the incident claimed that a police officer may have actually grabbed the knife by its blade when attempting to seize it, effectively causing his own injury:

Around 13:25 on the 26th, when police officers questioned two men, one of them kept a tool knife (the length of a blade was 7.5cm) in his backpack, so police was going to let him get in the police car to ask him to go to the police station voluntarily. Then, he took the knife back from the police and ran away. Police captured him right a way, but since police grabbed the knife, he got injured. Manseibashi Police Station arrested the guy for a charge of inflicting bodily injury and the interference with a government official in the execution of his duties.

Other newspapers were more vague in their coverage, and it is unclear if Asahi’s story is true or not.

One thing, however, does seem to be clear: one should avoid carrying any knives in their bags when going to Akihabara, even if the knives in question are seemingly harmless tool knives. Police seem to be regularly performing searches of individuals, and even knife owners that don’t react like fools have to deal with a lot of BS before police allow them to go free.