Tokyo residents are being asked to refrain from wearing spooky costumes on the city's train network after a man killed one and injured 17 while on a rampage dressed as The Joker last year.
Just after 8pm on Halloween 2021, a 24-year-old male passenger clad in a purple suit, green shirt and necktie boarded a Keio Line express train in Tokyo.
As the service pulled up at Chofu station, towards the outskirts of the sprawling city, the man knifed an elderly woman, 72, in the chest with a 12-inch blade.
Now one of Tokyo's leading train operators the Keio Corporation is asking residents to be considerate of others who may be terrified riding the train after such a violent incident.
A statement, reported by Sora24, reads: “When going out to celebrate Halloween, please refrain from boarding the train while wearing costumes that may make other passengers feel uneasy or frightened.”
The operator - which runs some of the most important routes between city and suburbs - confirmed it plans to increase security staff and patrols over spooky season.
Last year's harrowing attack on an innocent elderly resident took place in full view of other commuters, who fled to escape the crazed knifeman.
As they fled, the man dresseed like the Joker doused the train in lighter fluid and set it alight. Flames engulfed the scene of the crime, spreading to the next carriage.
A quick-thinking passenger managed to smash the emergency button to tell the conductor what had happened.
The controller made an emergency stop at the next station.
Due to the urgent nature of the incident, the train didn't pull into the station properly and terrified passengers had to clamber through the windows to escape.
The elderly victim was out cold when the ambulance arrived and rushed her to hospital for treatment.
Sixteen fellow passengers needed to be admitted to hospital for smoke inhalation treatment.
One witness told the Yomiuri newspaper: “I thought it was a Halloween stunt.”
He said he saw passengers running in a panic towards his train car and: “Then, I saw a man walking this way, slowly waving a long knife. There was blood on the knife.”
Another video on Twitter showed a bespectacled man dressed in a purple suit, including a purple waistcoat, a patterned tie and a long coat.
He has just one glove on his left hand while he smokes the cigarette in the other with a black mask tucked under his chin.
He is sat alone in an empty train puffing on a cigarette, his legs crossed and looking calm before he is surrounded by law enforcement in a later clip.
In a non-Halloween incident, which took place over the summer, a knifeman brandishing a sickle attempted to force his way through security, apparently trying to get on the train with the deadly weapon.
