Odawara, Kanagawa Pref.

A Japanese court sentenced Wednesday a 23-year-old man to an indefinite prison term for killing or injuring three passengers on a Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train in June last year.

Presiding Judge Yuki Sawaki at Yokohama District Court's branch in the city of Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, handed down the ruling sought by public prosecutors in the lay judge trial.

In the ruling, Sawaki denounced Ichiro Kojima for showing "extreme disregard for human life" and "being self-centered and selfish" in committing the random killing in order to stay in prison for the rest of his life.

Kojima killed one of the passengers by slashing him 78 times, which Sawaki described as extremely cruel. Noting that Kojima shows no signs of regret, she concluded that he deserves the death sentence or indefinite imprisonment.

Sawaki also said great attention should not be paid to a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder from a psychiatric  evaluation on the man. But it cannot be said that the death sentence is unavoidable, considering his age and other factors, the judge said.

When the judge was explaining appeal procedures to Kojima after the ruling, the defendant shouted: "I won't appeal. I will do banzai three times." He then made three banzai cheers, despite attempts to stop him by court staff.

According to the ruling, Kojima assaulted two women with a hatchet on a Shinkansen train on the night of June 9, 2018, between the stations of Shin-Yokohama and Odawara.

He killed 38-year-old male corporate employee Kotaro Umeda from the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, who tried to stop the attack.

Jiji Press