Prosecutors on Friday indicted a 56-year-old man on trespassing and other charges over an incident in April in which knives were found on Prince Hisahito's classroom desk at a Tokyo junior high school.
Kaoru Hasegawa has admitted to placing the knives on the desk at Ochanomizu University Junior High School on April 26, telling investigators that he intended to stab the 12-year-old nephew of Emperor Naruhito and criticizing the imperial system and way of imperial succession.
(Ochanomizu University Junior High School)
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He was arrested three days later, shortly before the emperor's enthronement on May 1 following the abdication of his father, former Emperor Akihito, the previous day. The young prince is second in line to the throne after his father Crown Prince Fumihito, 53, the younger brother of the 59-year-old emperor.
Around noon on April 26, a teacher found an aluminum bar with two fruit knives attached by duct tape placed across the prince's desk and the one next to it. The heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne and his classmates were not in the classroom at the time.
Hasegawa, a resident of Kyoto, underwent a psychiatric examination from May and the prosecutors have determined he can be charged with criminal liability.
