Police forensic experts investigate a crime scene where a man stabbed 19 people, including children in Kawasaki on May 28, 2019. AFP Photo

KAWASAKI A mass stabbing rampage outside of Tokyo on Tuesday, May 28, killed a schoolgirl, and the suspected attacker was also dead after turning his knife on himself, according to local media.

The attack, in the town of Kawasaki, south of the Japanese capital, also injured 17 people, local emergency officials told AFP.

The rampage was a rare attack in a country with one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the developed world and there was no immediate detail on the motive of the knifeman.

It came as Donald Trump wraps up a state visit to Japan, and the US president offered his "prayers and sympathy" to the victims as he met troops outside Tokyo.

Standing aboard a Japanese military ship, he said that "all Americans stand with the people of Japan and grieve for the victims and for their families".

The attack occurred during the busy early morning commute as workers headed to their offices and children to school in Kawasaki.

Local media said the attack killed a schoolgirl and that the suspected attacker, who was taken into custody by police, had died after stabbing himself.

"One man and one female child are showing no vital signs," fire department official Yuji Sekizawa had earlier told AFP, employing a phrase commonly used in Japan to mean the victims have died but the death has not yet been certified by an official medical professional.

The fire department said children were also among the 17 others injured. AFP