Police are on the hunt for an individual responsible for sending bomb and death threats to hundreds of schools across the country, prompting hasty closures. the first wave of messages began on monday, reaching high schools and universities from a tokyo-registered number. no explosives have been found in school buildings, according to police.
Messages were sent to high schools and universities in various prefectures including osaka, saitama, and ibaraki near tokyo. one prefecture, saitama, reported that more than 170 schools received bomb threats. some reports said the messages demanded ransoms ranging from 300,000 yen to 3 million yen. on tuesday, messages threatening to kill students and teachers with homemade weapons were also sent from the same number.
Threats saw many schools in japan shutting down as a precaution, though most had re-opened by thursday. fax machines are still commonly used in japan, and it is believed that these were the means by which the messages were sent. there have been no reports of attacks on pupils and staff so far. it is unclear why the individual responsible for the threats sent them, though it is possible that they were attempting to extort money from the schools.
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