A passenger bus from Saga Prefecture bound for Fukuoka was hijacked Wednesday afternoon by a teenage male who apparently stabbed three of the passengers.
One of the women was later reported to have died of her injuries.
The hijacker was demanding that authorities supply him with a gun and cash, according to Yasunari Ito, head of the Cabinet's crisis management headquarters in Tokyo. He was carrying a knife with a blade about 40 cm long, police said.
Investigators were continuing to negotiate with the youth, believed to be in his late teens, at the parking lot, where the bus arrived shortly before 6 p.m.