Man tries to chop off hand in Japanese protest
A man tried to chop off his left hand with a 15-inch machete in front of Japan’s parliament building today, apparently to protest against Japan’s policy towards North Korea.
The 54-year-old man approached the building’s front gates in a car, stepped out, silently placed his left hand against the bonnet and swiftly brought the machete down around his left wrist, according to Tokyo police official Hideyuki Yoshioka.
The man, who identified himself as a member of a right-wing organisation, then mumbled protests against Japan’s handling of North Korea’s past abduction of Japanese citizens as police rushed to snatch the machete away and get him to a hospital, Yoshioka said.
The man “appeared to be in a lot of pain and his hand was hanging by a piece of skin” after the incident, which took place about 1.20pm local time (4.20am Irish time) today, according to Yoshioka.
