Episode 54: Odakyu Line Stabbing

Black Torii — Japanese True Crime · Aug 25, 2026 · 11m

It was a Friday evening in August 2021. Tokyo was still hosting the Summer Olympics — empty stadiums, careful celebrations, the entire city putting on its most composed face for a watching world. And at around 8:30 in the evening, millions of people were doing what they always do in a city of this size: sitting on trains, heading home, staring at their phones. On a rapid express train on the Odakyu Electric Railway, heading toward Shinjuku, the carriages were full but quiet. Workers with their bags on their laps. Young people with earbuds in. The hum and sway of a train doing what trains do…