A major train operator in western Japan will equip crew with blade-resistant umbrellas to help them quickly evacuate passengers in the event of a knife attack, JR West said. The initiative comes after a number of knife attacks on trains in Japan, including an incident on one of JR West’s airport line services in July 2023 when three people were injured by a man with knives. The umbrellas are made of a special, blade-resilient fabric and have shafts about a meter long. They are designed to allow crew to fend off or slow down an assailant to create time for passengers to escape. The company will…