{"id":64196,"date":"2026-03-27T15:47:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64196"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:47:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:47:31","slug":"pokemon-center-mega-tokyo-will-close-its-doors-until-further-notice-following-knife-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-center-mega-tokyo-will-close-its-doors-until-further-notice-following-knife-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Center Mega Tokyo\u00a0will\u00a0close\u00a0its\u00a0doors until further notice following\u00a0knife attack\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Following an incident&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;Pok\u00e9mon Center Mega Tokyo store in the&nbsp;Sunshine City building&nbsp;of&nbsp;Higashi-Ikebukuro,&nbsp;Tokyo,&nbsp;<strong>T<\/strong><strong>he<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Pok\u00e9mon Company<\/strong>&nbsp;announced that&nbsp;the store&nbsp;will be closed indefinitely for the time being. According to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/corporate.pokemon.co.jp\/media\/news\/detail\/370.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">official notice<\/a>, this&nbsp;is to ensure the&nbsp;company&nbsp;can&nbsp;\u201cprioritize full cooperation with the police and the physical and mental well-being of the staff.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The incident took place on Thursday, when a\u00a0man armed with two knives fatally stabbed a\u00a0female\u00a0employee at the Pok\u00e9mon Center Mega Tokyo store\u00a0before taking his own life.\u00a0At the time of the incident, the shop was\u00a0full of customers and children on spring break, who fled the area\u00a0in shock (source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/16452436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Asahi Shimbun<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last December, Japanese police received complaints from the victim (a&nbsp;21-year-old woman) over alleged stalking&nbsp;(source:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www3.nhk.or.jp\/nhkworld\/en\/news\/20260327_01\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NHK World Japan<\/a>).&nbsp;The man in question&nbsp;(also in his 20s) turned out to be&nbsp;the victim\u2019s ex-boyfriend and was&nbsp;arrested&nbsp;on suspicion of&nbsp;violating&nbsp;Japan\u2019s&nbsp;Stalking Regulation Act. He was rearrested&nbsp;in January on allegations of voyeurism&nbsp;and was issued a restraining order&nbsp;after being released.&nbsp;Despite this, he entered the Pok\u00e9mon Center Mega Tokyo&nbsp;and stabbed the victim.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pok\u00e9mon Company is currently working with the authorities to&nbsp;assist&nbsp;in&nbsp;the investigation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon Company will prioritize full cooperation with the police and the physical and mental well-being of its staff following the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":64198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-64196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pok\u00e9mon Center Mega Tokyo\u00a0will\u00a0close\u00a0its\u00a0doors until further notice following\u00a0knife attack\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon Company will prioritize full cooperation with the police and the physical and mental well-being of its staff following the incident.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-center-mega-tokyo-will-close-its-doors-until-further-notice-following-knife-attack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pok\u00e9mon Center Mega Tokyo\u00a0will\u00a0close\u00a0its\u00a0doors until further notice following\u00a0knife attack\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon Company will prioritize full cooperation with the police and the physical and mental well-being of its staff following the incident.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-center-mega-tokyo-will-close-its-doors-until-further-notice-following-knife-attack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-27T06:47:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-27T06:47:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20250221-44635-header-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"623\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pok\u00e9mon Center Mega Tokyo\u00a0will\u00a0close\u00a0its\u00a0doors until further notice following\u00a0knife attack\u00a0 - 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