A 55-year-old woman armed with a sword rammed three police cars and then drove the wrong way down a highway toward Tokyo after a lengthy stand-off with officers in the Japanese city of Chiba, according to Japan Today, an English-language news outlet that covers national news across Japan.
Police in Chiba received a call on the morning of Wednesday, September 9, after a woman stopped her car in the street and blocked traffic. When officers arrived, they found the woman sitting inside the vehicle holding a sword and refusing to leave.
Officers spent about an hour and a half negotiating with her. She then suddenly started the engine, rammed three patrol cars, pulled onto a highway and drove against the flow of traffic in the direction of Tokyo. Police eventually called off the pursuit, judging it had become too dangerous to continue.
Japan drives on the left-hand side of the road, so a vehicle travelling in the wrong lane on a highway moves directly into the path of oncoming traffic.
Arrest in Shibuya
The woman was detained later that afternoon in Shibuya, a district in central Tokyo known for its shopping, nightlife and Shibuya Crossing, an intersection often described as one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the world. She was initially arrested on suspicion of carrying a weapon, but was sent to hospital almost immediately afterward.
A medical examination found she needed urgent hospitalization because of mental health problems, according to the report. No one was injured during her drive against oncoming traffic.
Chiba, Tokyo and Japan's weapons laws
Chiba is a city east of Tokyo and the capital of Chiba Prefecture. It sits at the eastern edge of the Greater Tokyo Area, one of the most densely populated metropolitan regions in the world, and is separated from central Tokyo by Tokyo Bay, though the two are also linked directly by several major highways.
Tokyo, Japan's capital, is one of the world's most populous cities and serves as the country's political, economic and cultural centre.
Japan tightly regulates bladed weapons under its Firearms and Swords Control Law, which generally requires swords to be registered and restricts carrying them in public without a permit. Japan is also widely regarded as having one of the lowest rates of violent crime among wealthy nations, which makes public incidents involving weapons relatively rare.
Swords have held cultural and historical significance in Japan for centuries, most notably the katana carried by samurai warriors, and many surviving blades are today kept as registered family heirlooms or museum pieces rather than as weapons for use.
