Hostage held by knifeman is freed

After a three-hour stand-off, police in southwestern Japan have arrested a knife-wielding man who took a convenience store employee hostage.

The hostage reportedly sustained a slight neck injury.

Police arrested Takeshi Nishikawa, a 54-year-old unemployed man, after persuading him to release the 38-year-old employee of a Sunkus 24-hour store in Iyomatsuyama on the island of Shikoku.

Ryuichi Shiraishi, spokesman for the Ehime prefectural police, said Nishikawa held the man hostage for about three-and-a-half hours.

Reports said the hostage suffered minor neck injuries and was treated at a nearby hospital.

It wasn't known how the hostage was injured.

There were four employees at the store when Nishikawa, brandishing a 7in-long kitchen knife, entered the store early on Monday.

He soon released three of the employees unhurt.

No customers were in the store at the time, Mr Shiraishi said, adding that police are investigating Nishikawa's motive for the crime.

Violent crime is rare in Japan compared with other industrialised countries, but the number of crimes reported nationwide climbed to a record high during the fist six months of this year, an increase that analysts blame in part on an 11-year economic downturn.

On Sunday, a 51-year-old policeman was stabbed to death by a man wielding a sword in a Tokyo neighbourhood.

The attacker was also killed after the policeman shot him.