Flasher delays train for over 7,000 commuters in Saga

Wednesday 20th May, 09:28 AM JST

SAGA —

Police on Tuesday arrested a man for obscenity in public after he reportedly flashed passengers riding on the JR Kagoshima Line. According to reports, at around 7:50 a.m., Takashi Ishikawa, 56, boarded a train heading from Ogura toward Tosu City in Saga Prefecture, dropped his pants and flashed a 24 year-old female passenger.

Ishikawa, who told police he was unemployed and homeless, admitted to the charges, and was quoted as saying: “I got on the train with the intention of flashing someone.”

According to police, the conductors attempted to question Ishikawa about the incident while the train was stopped at Spaceworld Station in Kitakyushu City, but he jumped onto the tracks and ran about 650 meters before he was apprehended by JR staff who found him hiding in the shadow of a freight train.

Ishikawa was fully clothed when he made his attempted escape. The train was stopped for over 30 minutes, delaying or canceling 13 other trains and affecting about 7,000 passengers.

News reports

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Latest 15 of 49 Total Comments Show All

WMD at 10:37 PM JST - 20th May

What a laugh! Love it!
knews at 10:51 PM JST - 20th May

The old one-eyed trouser snake flashing syndrome. Quite a saga.
BurakuminDes at 11:25 PM JST - 20th May

Why can't there be any female flashers? It's always men.....damn that sucks!
Badge213 at 11:27 PM JST - 20th May

Spaceworld Station! Sounds like a cool place.
ca1ic0cat at 12:02 AM JST - 21st May

I suppose if you are unemployed and homeless that's one way of getting free care. But yeah, why are men the only flashers? Do you not hear of female flashers because the guys don't complain? Or do women not flash? And why do men flash in the first place? Seems really warped. Worse than an old flabby guy in a speedo swimsuit, I imagine.
TokyoHustla at 02:46 AM JST - 21st May

Another an hero
XXXXX at 03:08 AM JST - 21st May

probably got bored, still...
Fadamor at 04:16 AM JST - 21st May

GW, one was a publicity stunt, the other was a public stump.
bcbrownboy at 06:11 AM JST - 21st May

The best part about this article? If you want to see all comments, you have to press, "See all."
bcbrownboy at 06:12 AM JST - 21st May

Oops, "Show All."
blackbagger at 03:21 PM JST - 21st May

I just hope I'm around the one time it's a woman who does the flashing.
helloklitty at 03:34 PM JST - 21st May

Flashing? I thought the term was "sharking".
NoUseForaName at 10:21 PM JST - 21st May

Haha I can't believe the train was delayed over a flasher!! If I had ten yen for every time I've seen some strange old man with his bits out I'd have at least two hundred yen! There is always old men pissing in the streets downtown, and other things.... ick!!
TheFog at 07:16 AM JST - 24th May

To note that the title of this article is misleading is an understatement. The train was obviously delayed before it ever got to Saga prefecture. Kitakyushu is in the northeast of Fukuoka prefecture, and Saga is to the west of Fukuoka towards Nagasaki. Furthermore, Ogura is a misreading of the Sinitic writing. Everyone knows Ogura is in Yahata which is past Space World, and it should be Okura which is in Kokura. Space World is a spacious theme park on the theme of outer space, and has the reputation of being a popular place to bring a date (that you want to let you in her space?) . . .
TheFog at 04:22 PM JST - 25th May

Actually, as there isn't a station in Ogura or Okura, it appears to be a train coming from Kokura -- the same characters are read in ogura ann (a flavour of red bean paste used in sweets). Kokura is better known in the English-speaking world as being the original target for the atomic bomb that hit Nagasaki, passed over due to the weather . . .