A junior high school student was stabbed in Tokyo＊s Ota Ward on Wednesday, with a 61-year-old man arrested following the incident.

The 13-year-old boy was rushed to a hospital, but his injuries appeared to not be life-threatening.

Yasunori Yamashita was arrested on the scene after a passerby reported to the police that a boy had been stabbed at around 8 a.m. in Ota Ward＊s Kamata district. He had blood on his hands and clothes when he was arrested.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the boy, a first-year junior high school student, was stabbed in the chest with a small knife at the doorstep of his home.

※It＊s true that I did it,§ Yamashita was quoted as saying by investigators.

A blood-stained knife was found at the crime scene. NHK quoted a neighbor as saying that the victim＊s father said the suspect was a former colleague of his and had come to their home the day before.

A 73-year-old woman living nearby rushed to the scene immediately after the incident and helped the boy, who was bleeding, by applying a towel to his wound as a woman who appeared to be the victim＊s mother asked for help, Jiji Press reported.

The area is a residential neighborhood about a five-minute walk from Kamata Station.

※Of course, I was surprised. But I＊m glad that the suspect is already caught, so it feels safe,§ said a 49-year-old man who lives nearby, recalling a burglary case in Kamata in late March in which the suspect was arrested a few days later.

In Japan, where gun violence is rare due to strict laws, knives are used for a large portion of violent crime. In March, a 17-year-old high school student was arrested for stabbing a teacher at a junior high school in Toda, Saitama Prefecture, and in November, Shinji Miyadai, a well-known sociologist, was seriously wounded in a knife attack on a Tokyo university campus.

Information from Kyodo added