The extraordinary story of a girl who managed to overcome a man attempting to rape her at knife-point has been one of the most talked about stories on the Japanese internet today.

After grabbing the knife and stabbing her attacker, the girl ran to fetch help, but the man, who has not been identified, later died in hospital.

But did the girl act in legitimate self-defense?

From Yahoo! Japan:

Man Who Attacked Girl Dies After She Resisted By Stabbing Him With The Knife He Threatened Her With — Tokyo

At just past 10pm on October 3, a girl in her teens asked a passerby for help on the roadside at Horinouchi in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, saying “I was attacked by a man I don’t know, so I stabbed him and escaped”. A policeman from the Nishi Arai division of the metropolitan police who attended after the man called 110 [emergency number in Japan] discovered a man nearby who was unconscious and losing a large amount of blood from his thigh area. The man was confirmed dead upon his arrival at hospital.

The girl explained: “I seized the opportunity to take the knife from him, stabbed him in the thigh, and escaped”. The police are considering the possibility that this constituted legitimate self defense, and are investigating the series of events in detail.

According to police, when the girl was jogging along the path beside the Arakawa River, a man she had never met suddenly thrust a knife towards her, kissed her, and touched her body. The man then placed the knife on the ground, so the girl was able to take it. She stabbed the man in the thigh and went to get help from a man who was passing nearby.

The identity of the man is not known; however, he appeared to be in his fifties, and was wearing a hat and dark-rimmed glasses. While the police are hurrying to identify the man, they are in line to prosecute that the man died while attempting rape.

Comments from Yahoo! Japan:

faceboo:

If it’s true then it’s legitimate self defense.

pik*****:

Well she stabbed him in the thigh and not in the chest, so it’s hardly excessive.

Who’d stab someone in the thigh if they wanted to kill them?

cub*****:

If it’s as the article says, then no matter what this would have traumatized the girl.

チョウチョウさん:

I think it’s reasonable that this is acknowledged as legitimate self-defense, but I’m worried that she’s going to get PTSD from the memory of the time she was attacked.(￣◇￣;)

大きなクリの木下さん:

She was the victim, and she stabbed him in the thigh, which isn’t a vital spot, so isn’t this within the bounds of self-defense?

When police marksmen shoot, they aim for the leg.

If you shoot someone in the head it’s shooting to kill, but in the thigh it’s self-defence.

You can’t anticipate that someone will die from blood loss if you stab them in the thigh, plus if she hadn’t stabbed him she’d have been raped, so if she’s found guilty over this then Japanese law is fucked up.

偽物造りは犯罪:

If he really did attack the girl, then the fact that she retaliated and he was the one who got stabbed means he deserved it. He should have lived and paid for his crime, but ultimately he brought on his death himself, and he doesn’t have the right to hold a grudge against anyone.

For the man, that’s the end of it, but when they discover his identity, if he has a family and parents then I feel sorry for them. There was no more shameful, bothersome a way to die than this.

sai*a*dekir*h*o:

The girl ended up stabbing him at the last moment when she thought she’d be stabbed, so no matter how you think about it, it’s self-defense.

nr_*****:

Lowest way to die.

soc*****:

Even if

she had had used excessive force,

it’s better than her having these horrible memories of being raped.

ver*****: