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The 17 Year Old Who Highjacked a Bus
Seiichi Taniguchi posted his plan on a forum before his fatal bus attack.
”Your destination is not Tenjin, it’s Hell!”
Golden Week is a Japanese holiday season between the end of April and early May. Schools are closed, banks, government offices, and many companies close their doors for the spring holiday to enjoy the blooming of the cherry blossoms and coming warm weather.
During this time, many Japanese people go on vacations, visit their families, or visit tourist attractions. Shops, highways, and public transportation is usually filled with people of all ages enjoying the holiday.
During the Golden Week season in 2000, a 17-year-old boy named Seiichi Taniguchi decided to board a bus from his small town in Saga, Japan, and head to the big city of Fukuoka in Kyushu, Japan. The bus ride was scheduled to be a 70-minute ride but Seiichi had a different plan.
He decided to hijack the bus carrying around 20 other passengers and the driver and had a stand-off with police that lasted 15 hours and left many injured and one woman dead from a slash to the throat.
Why did he decide to hijack the bus? How were some of the passengers able to escape? What happened to the bus driver and to…
