{"id":15166,"date":"2026-05-01T05:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/15166\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T05:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:28:10","slug":"suspect-in-assault-on-teenager-near-us-air-base-on-japans-wanted-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/15166\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in assault on teenager near US air base on Japan\u2019s wanted list"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mb2-plus4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/040526YOKOTA-HAMMERphoto03.jpg\" alt=\"A mug shot of a Japanese man posed in front of a white background.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"default-font lh-default ma0 mh3 mt0 pb3\">\n\t\t\t\tTeruyuki Takabayashi, 44, of Fussa city, seen here in a photograph from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police website, is wanted by police in connection with an alleged attack on a teenager in Fussa. (Tokyo Metropolitan Police)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">TOKYO \u2013 A man suspected by police of attacking a teenage boy with something like a hammer in a city outside Yokota Air Base is on a nationwide wanted list in Japan, according to Tokyo Metropolitan Police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Teruyuki Takabayashi, 44, of Fussa city, is wanted by police investigating an incident outside a restaurant in Fussa on Wednesday morning, a metropolitan police spokeswoman said by phone Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Police suspect Takabayashi struck a 17-year-old boy\u2019s face multiple times with a hammer-like object between 7:15 a.m. and 7:25 a.m. Wednesday outside a restaurant in Fussa, the spokeswoman said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Fussa, one of several cities surrounding Yokota, an airlift hub and headquarters of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo, is where the base\u2019s main gate is located.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Another high school student was also attacked and sustained a minor injury, public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Seven people, including the two students, were gathered near the restaurant when Takabayashi attacked them, NHK reported, citing investigators. When police arrived, he threatened them with a knife and sprayed liquid at them with an agricultural sprayer, injuring three officers, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Takabayashi then barricaded himself inside his home near the restaurant for about four and a half hours before police entered and discovered he was gone, according to NHK. <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">The metropolitan police wanted list posted on its website described Takabayashi as 5-feet 7-inches tall with short, cropped hair and wearing a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants. <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Some government spokespeople in Japan may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Police are looking for any information, including sightings of Takabayashi on public transportation, according to the wanted list.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4 \">Anyone with information may call Fussa police at 042-551-0110.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teruyuki Takabayashi, 44, of Fussa city, seen here in a photograph from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police website, is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12273,12274,8,33,4612,2078,496,12275],"class_list":["post-15166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-assault","tag-fussa","tag-japan","tag-nihon","tag-tokyo-metropolitan-police","tag-us-forces-japan","tag-usfj","tag-yokota-air-base"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}