TOKYO – Police say a man has set himself on fire at Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku railway station in an apparent political protest.
An officer at the Shinjuku police station says the man was taken to the hospital Sunday after suffering serious injuries. He says the reason for the self-immolation is under investigation.
Shots of the incident on Twitter and other social media show a man clad in a suit and tie sitting on the metal framework above a pedestrian walkway on the south side of the station.
Witnesses are quoted as saying the man gave a speech against the government’s moves to change Japan’s defence policy, doused himself with gasoline and set himself alight.
The national broadcaster NHK showed firefighters using fire hoses to extinguish the flames.
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