Frightening experience shows that although Japan might be considered safe, you never know when you might have a brush with danger.

Our reporter Masanuki Sunakoma does a lot of travel for work, zipping around the country on Japan’s network of Shinkansen bullet trains, but one recent rail ride turned out to be like none he’s ever experienced, so here he is to tell his story…

I can’t say exactly when or where, but I was riding in a non-reserved carriage on a near-empty Shinkansen bullet train when a group of four or five men in their 30s or 40s came from another car and kept glancing over at me. Even though there were plenty of empty seats, for some reason they stood and kept looking my way.

Since there were plenty of empty seats, I figured they’d soon sit down, especially since we were only about 20 minutes from the final stop. But instead of sitting down, they kept wandering around the car and didn’t sit anywhere at all. Just as I began wondering what on earth they were up to, one of the men approached me and said, “Excuse me…”

The moment he spoke to me, I instantly ran through all the possible scenarios in my head. Maybe he was a big fan of our site who was about to say, “Hey, I read your work all the time!”, which would’ve been a joy. However, his expression was nothing like that of a fan’s — instead, he was completely serious and almost intimidating. I started to wonder if I’d accidentally sat in a seat I wasn’t supposed to. If so, I was ready to apologise, but what came next was totally unexpected.

He opened his mouth and said: “I’m with the police.”

It was just like something out of a detective drama. The man took his police badge out from his chest pocket and introduced himself, and he had what looked like an earpiece or radio in one ear, giving him an air of authority that made Masanuki realise this wasn’t a prank.

Continuing in an authoritative tone, the man who’d identified himself as a detective told me that a dangerous criminal had been sitting right in front of me until just a few moments earlier.

Apparently, the person had gotten off at the previous station, and the detective asked me, “Can you tell us, as best as you can remember, about the appearance and behaviour of the person who was sitting in front of you?”

Thinking back, the non-reserved seats had been almost completely full until just a little while earlier, and I’d simply taken the only available seat. The seat was one that nobody else appeared interested in as the person in front, the one who turned out to be a suspected criminal, had reclined their seat all the way back.

Shinkansen seats have a lot of leg room, so even though the person in front had fully reclined their seat, it didn’t really bother me. However, what stood out was that because the person in front had reclined their seat all the way back, I clearly remembered their face.

I described the person’s appearance to the detective as best as I could remember and he shared the information with the team via radio. While I couldn’t provide details about the person’s behaviour or actions on the train, I cooperated with the investigation right up until we arrived at the final station.

After getting off the Shinkansen, I checked the news on my phone and saw a breaking story on the front page of a domestic news site, with a photo of the suspect. My jaw just about hit the floor as it was the person who had been sitting in front of me.

The news report stated: “The suspect has been arrested, but the weapon still hasn’t been found.” Apparently, the police were searching the Shinkansen because the weapon might still be somewhere on board or may have been discarded there.

After getting over the shock of being involved first-hand with the police investigation, I was honestly amazed by the ability of the police to pinpoint the exact seat where the suspect had been sitting, even though it was a non-reserved seat, and to arrive so quickly at the scene on a Shinkansen running right on schedule.

In any case, the thought that a suspect, possibly carrying a weapon, had been right in front of me sends chills down my spine. Someone once told me, “You’ll pass by a dangerous criminal a dozen or so times in your lifetime” and after this experience, I felt the truth of that statement.

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