A major train operator in western Japan will equip crew with blade-resistant umbrellas to help them quickly evacuate passengers in the event of a knife attack, JR West said.

The initiative comes after a number of knife attacks on trains in Japan, including an incident on one of JR West's airport line services in July 2023 when three people were injured by a man with knives.

The umbrellas are made of a special, blade-resilient fabric and have shafts about a meter long. They are designed to allow crew to fend off or slow down an assailant to create time for passengers to escape.

The company will install two of the special umbrellas each in around 600 trains including express services linking the western Japan cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, as well on a line to Kansai airport in Osaka Prefecture by the end of this fiscal year through March.

While JR West trains are already equipped with plastic shields intended for use in such emergency situations, many crew said they are afraid to use them as they would need to approach an attacker. The umbrella's long shafts allow crew to stay at a safer distance.

The umbrellas were developed by a security equipment maker at the request of JR West. They weigh some 700 grams, lighter than the plastic shields, so they can be handled easily, taking into account an increasing number of female crew, according to JR West.

Among other notable incidents on trains are knife attacks in 2021 injuring several people in Tokyo on the Odakyu and Keio lines. Also in 2018, a man with a cleaver killed one and wounded two others on a crowded bullet train bound for Shin-Osaka from Tokyo.