Hijacking Japan

It was meant to be a chance to escape the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.

Nicola was working hard as an English teacher in Japan; she desperately needed a holiday.

A long weekend with her boyfriend, Akira, and two other friends, Mai and Masashi, seemed ideal.

The four of them would travel by Japan's safest form of transport, the shinkansen ('bullet train'), before boarding a ferry for the trip across to the quiet island of Sado.

However, Nicola and her friends could never imagine that they would become caught up in a hijacking.

Why would someone want to hijack this train? How would Nicola and her friends respond to being on a hijacked train?

Would the police be able to catch those responsible?

Hijacking Japan follows events in a real-time format during a dramatic day that threatens to bring the Japanese government to its knees.