Woman attacked, robbed in her Tokyo apartment

Friday 23rd October, 08:37 AM JST

TOKYO —

A 45-year-old woman suffered cuts to her face and arms on Thursday when she returned to her Shinjuku Ward apartment and was attacked by a Chinese-speaking assailant, police said Friday.

Police said the woman came home from shopping at around 2 p.m. and when she opened the door, a man inside the apartment rushed to the entrance with a knife and demanded money. The man robbed the woman of roughly 100,000 yen and her mobile phone, and inflicted cuts to her arms and face before running away. The woman’s injuries are expected to take a week to heal, police said.

The woman told police she had never seen the man before, and said he was between 170 and 180 cm tall, looked around 30 years old, was wearing a white beanie and spoke Chinese.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 38 Total Comments Show All

Junnama at 12:57 PM JST - 23rd October

Perhaps the Chinese press has some details?
sakurasuki at 01:03 PM JST - 23rd October

"The Safe Japan" is not there anymore.
kokorocloud at 01:04 PM JST - 23rd October

taj-- To be fair, do they usually print "the victim was Japanese" other than when it involves stories that take place outside the country? I was under the impression that they only point out nationality when the victim/criminal is non-Japanese. Or so I thought. Maybe I need to go back and read some of the older crime stories.
topup2009 at 02:07 PM JST - 23rd October

hope this woman recover asap, and the criminal will be brought to justice right now.
TheTim at 03:18 PM JST - 23rd October

To assume that a Japanese speaker is not able to discern whether or not someone is speaking Chinese is ludacris. I'm an English speaker and with my minimal exposure to the Chinese language I'm able to determine when someone is speaking Chinese. I'm certain an English speaker can tell the difference between French and German. It's that easy for a Japanese speaker to recognize Chinese. What are they going to do to a Chinese criminal? Put him in a heated Japanese prison cell with hot meals as good or better than he's used to back home and surrounded by many of his countrymen? That's not much of a deterrent.
poollymook at 03:47 PM JST - 23rd October

Okubo and Shin Okubo are both within Shunjuku Ward. Has anyone stopped to think for a second that the victim MAY have been a Chinese national too? Duh...
Monoflow at 04:20 PM JST - 23rd October

It's easy to differ a japanese from a chinese by speaking, acting, even appearance. Even me can do this and i'm european...
dammit at 04:39 PM JST - 23rd October

Another thing they don't mention (in addition to whether the woman understands Chinese and whether the man made his demand for money in Chinese or Japanese,) is how he got in.

I'd bet she left the door unlocked.

If so it's really partly her own fault. But even if that's so I still feel sorry for her, and hope she recovers as quickly and well as possible.
moonbeams at 06:13 PM JST - 23rd October

It's a known fact to the police that criminals are often ordered by their superiors to fake a foreign accent when committing a crime in order to throw off police.

The article lacks information needed to determine the culprit's nationality, so arguing about it is futile.
ca1ic0cat at 08:49 PM JST - 23rd October

Yeah, so what if he spoke Chinese and the victim understood him. The good news is that she wasn't killed.
isthistheend at 09:26 PM JST - 23rd October

Its not just shinjuku where the C-people are robbing the J-people. My J-friend lives in a nice suburb with rich houses about an hour from Shibuya, and 2 years ago his house was robbed clean, wife's jewels all gone. Police said it was a C-network who had pulled, are you ready.....500 such heists within the area in the past year. And now the gov't is extending trouism to include entry without visas? Maybe someone better speak up soon or forever hold your jewels.
Ari94 at 12:48 PM JST - 24th October

First of all Chinese is also spoken by Taiwanese and peple from Hong Kong not only in China with diffierent dialects. So, how come they can brand CHINA?unless they got proof.

I am also agreed with isthistheend I am not against any nationality but not controlling present situation of foreigner is not good. Look at USA, UK and Germany did not they suffer by foreigners? easing tourist visa for making money is not a solution. Foreigners or Locals, it is the duty of Government to protect society not just by installing cameras in the train. (Coming Soon)

May be the thief might be a Foreign Trainee suffered by injusctice in Japan.
Ari94 at 12:53 PM JST - 24th October

This is corrected spell version sorry for mistakes in early post. Please read as: First of all Chinese is also spoken by Taiwanese and people from Hong Kong not only in China with different dialects. So, how come they can brand CHINA?unless they got proof.

I am also agreed with isthistheend I am not against any nationality but not controlling present situation of foreigner is not good. Look at USA, UK and Germany did not they suffer by foreigners? easing tourist visa for making money is not a solution. Foreigners or Locals, it is the duty of Government to protect society not just by installing cameras in the train. (Coming Soon)

May be the thief might be a Foreign Trainee suffered by injustice in Japan.
whatsgoinon at 07:16 PM JST - 24th October

I'd bet she left the door unlocked

If so it's really partly her own fault. But even if that's so I still feel sorry for her, and hope she recovers as quickly and well as possible

Sorry, Dammit...blaming the victim has gone out of style. I just can't speak out stronly enough against victim bashing...or really any kind of bashing. Maybe she left the door open..maybe he broke in..maybe she left a window open. None of this matters. Even if she invited him in, unless she handed him the money and begged him to assault her IT WAS NOT HER FAULT.
Blue_Tiger at 08:07 PM JST - 24th October

Okay, so when do we hear from Gov. Ishihara about how foreigners are to blame for Tokyo's rising crime rate and Japan's problems? After all, if the perp in this crime "spoke Chinese", it must mean the honorable Governor will make a statement sooner or later....