Japan: Violence in Shinjuku Station

Mobs of screaming students last week swarmed through the vast Shinjuku rail way station, Tokyo's largest. Wearing plastic helmets, the lower half of their faces masked with towels as a protection against tear gas, the students scrambled over tracks and platforms, smashing train windows, disemboweling seats, splintering and setting fire to doors, benches and stairways. One rioter shinnied up a pole to smash the signal lights — he touched a high-voltage line and crashed to earth in a shower of sparks, critically injured.

As railway employees raced to put out the fires, riot...