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Rescue workers take an injured passenger from the bullet train on Tuesday.
Rescue workers take an injured passenger from the bullet train on Tuesday. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters
Rescue workers take an injured passenger from the bullet train on Tuesday. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

Japanese woman who died after man's suicide on train was on way to shrine

This article is more than 8 years old

Yoshiko Kuwahara, killed when pensioner set himself on fire on packed bullet train, was heading to Ise shrine to give thanks for her ‘peaceful life’

A woman killed when a man deliberately set himself on fire aboard a moving bullet train in Japan was on her way to a shrine to give thanks for her “peaceful life”, it emerged on Wednesday.

Yoshiko Kuwahara died after 71-year-old Haruo Hayashizaki doused himself in fuel and sparked the fire on the busy train.

“Today I’m visiting Ise shrine to give thanks for my calm, peaceful life,” 52-year-old Kuwahara wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday morning as she boarded the super-fast Nozomi bullet train at Yokohama.

Ise shrine is one of the most sacred spots in Japan’s native Shintoism, and a major tourist attraction.

The train, packed with more than 800 passengers, was travelling from Tokyo to the commercial hub of Osaka when witnesses reported a blast in the front of the first carriage.

Plumes of choking, white smoke sent passengers fleeing down the train as it screeched to an emergency stop.

Reports said the driver rushed back into the smoke-filled carriage and tried to douse Hayashizaki’s still-burning body.

Footage from inside the train shot immediately after it stopped showed smut-stained passengers blinking and coughing as they crawled through thick smoke to the exits, some clutching small children.

Passengers, including children, were coughing and covering their mouths as they evacuated the front carriage of the bullet train near Odawara, 45 miles south-west of Tokyo. Guardian

As well as the two deaths, 26 people were hurt, authorities said.

On Wednesday police raided the dead man’s Tokyo home seeking clues about his motive.

The Sponichi tabloid reported Hayashizaki, who lived alone, had complained to neighbours he “would not be able to live properly because his pension was small”.

But the reason for choosing such a public suicide remained a mystery.

Self-immolations are relatively rare in Japan, a country where the culture of political protest is subdued, although there were two attemptsone successful – in 2014.

Both were men apparently protesting against what they saw as the “militarisation” of Japan under the nationalist prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Hayashizaki’s dramatic suicide has shocked Japan and has led to calls for more security on the vast bullet train network.

But many people reacted with overwhelming sympathy for Kuwahara.

On her profile, Kuwahara, a chiropractor, said her dream was “to become a person who treats people’s minds and bodies”.

“I’d like offer my heartfelt prayers. Why did you have to get wrapped up in this? It’s terrible,” said one of the 2,500 messages left on her Facebook page.

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