Stabbing rampage in Akihabara [Tokyo]: 7 people killed
All our updates about this story so far:
- Stabbing rampage in Akihabara [Tokyo]: 7 people killed
- Tomohiro Kato – Akihabara Killer
- Bloggers respond to the Akihabara killings
- Fuji TV focuses on Akihabara killer’s love of anime
- ‘Wanted’ video targets Akihabara idiots
Horrible news out of Akihabara, where a man went on a rampage with a survival knife, injuring and killing at random:
A man went on a stabbing spree on Sunday in central Tokyo, injuring at least 14 people with about five of them left unconscious, a fire department official said.
The man was subdued after stabbing bystanders near the bustling train station of Akihabara, an area known for electronics stores and is a haven for fans of video-games and comic-book culture.
At least 14 people including a police officer were injured, the fire department official said.
“About five of them are unconscious,” he said.
The man was driving a truck that swerved into pedestrians before he got out and began stabbing people at random, according to media reports.
Reuters erroneously reported that the attacker was “identified as a 25-year-old member of one of Japan’s yakuza crime syndicates.” Japanese media reports originally only said the man claimed to be a gangster. They now report he has admitted the gangster claim was not true.
A few photos of ambulances and the aftermath of the attack can be viewed at Iza.ne.jp.
Akihabara is usually very crowded on Sundays, with its main roads closed to cars so that pedestrians can enjoy shopping.
Update: These photos, allegedly showing police arresting the attacker, have been showing up all over 2ch.net:
Update 2: The death toll has reached 3.
Update 3: It is now being announced that 6 people have died.
The suspect, Tomohiro Kato, has told police that he drove a rental truck all the way from Shizuoka for the purpose of killing random people in Akihabara.
The assailant, who later told police he was “tired of living,” swerved a truck into a crowd of pedestrians shortly after noon in Tokyo’s bustling Akihabara area before jumping out screaming and stabbing strangers.
The assailant was identified as Tomohiro Kato, 25. He first said he was a gangster before retracting his story.
“I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter whom I’d kill,” he was quoted by Jiji Press as telling police.
By the time Kato dropped his knife at the gunpoint of a police officer, 17 people lay bloodied on the street of the crowded district, according to fire department and police officials.
Jiji Press and other Japanese media said that six people were dead — five men aged 19, 20, 29, 47 and 74 and a 21-year-old woman — marking a rare deadly crime in a city famed for safety.
Update 4: The count now stands at 7 dead, 11 wounded.
2-channel users have been repeatedly posting screen captures of shameless idiots waving to the camera during a news broadcast:
Update 5: The killer posted some online messages announcing the attack from his mobile phone:
On Monday, investigators said that they were looking at a series of messages sent by mobile phone to a website that appeared to foretell the attack.
“I’ll crash my vehicle into people and if the vehicle becomes useless, I’ll get out a knife. Goodbye everyone!”, Japanese media reports quoted one posting early on Sunday morning as saying.
Subsequent messages appeared to chart the suspect’s journey from Shizuoka to Tokyo.
“No postponement because of rainy weather,” said a later message, Kyodo news agency reported.
Another posting, some 20 minutes before the attack, simply said: “It’s time,” Kyodo added.
Update 6: AFP’s latest article has the following quote from a kid they interviewed about the incident:
“I’m afraid he did this because he played video games. But he should have known that in life, you can’t hit the restart button.”
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i hope he’ll die
I’m sure he will. This is Japan after all. Not that that will do anyone a bit of good.
I hope he doesn’t. He did this because he wants to die. He should be put on life imprisonment.
There is no life sentence w/o parole in Japan. Life means he’ll be out in 10-30 years. So a death sentence is the only way to insure that he’ll never be out again.
That’s so awful. On yahoo news it said that the 5 had gone into cardiac arrest… though I can’t be certain of it’s accuracy…
Why the hell would you do something like this? These idiots never cease to amaze. If you hate your life so much kill yourself with your knife.
MUCKER: A temporarily insane individual intent on killing or at least maiming anyone in reach. Mucking almost always occurs within heavily populated areas. A mucker can easily slay dozens of bystanders on a city street before apprehension. When in a berserk state (or “frame of reference”), muckers are capable of superhuman strength & stamina. Eyes will be fixed open, pupils dilated. Breathing is ragged & violent. Saliva may drool from a mucker’s mouth. Everyday clothing may tear from abnormally contracted biceps or thigh muscles. (If the mucker is male, full erection may be conspicuous.) The best defense from a mucker is not to be there when it happens. Entomologically, the term “mucker” is almost certainly derived from “amok” & is not a variation of “mugger.” Psychologically, the mucker phenomenon is directly related to overcrowding; precedents are found throughout history. — John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar
http://www.eskimo.com/~recall/bleed/0924.htm
ChocolateFruitFish, you’re right. “Sinpaiteisijoutai” doesn’t mean unconsciousness, it means cardiac arrest.
Jeez, thats crazy. Japan seems so safe and peaceful, yet occasionaly something happens thats so unexpected and random that shocks everyone.
Hope he gets sent down for a good long while…
Death penalty, yay!
Even if he is sentenced to death, he will spend a long time (possibly decades) on death row before the sentence is carried out.
In Japan, criminals sentenced to death almost always spend MANY years on death row.
Kato has nothing to do with yakuza gangsters.
I get home and my friend knocks on my door. He tells me he just got back from Akiba and wondered if I had heard anything. I hadn’t. He then tells me that he was standing right next to two of the victims when it happened and saw the guy getting cuffed away. Some guy with a bleeding stomach collapsed right next to him. Dayum…why would someone do this in Akiba? Unless the motive of the Yakuza branch was Otaku-annihilation.
Awful…
Your friend was lucky not to be targeted by that killer!
So, how long did it take to get the victims to a hospital and get emergency surgery on a Sunday? Japan is getting notorious for lack of even critical EMERGENCY medical care outside of banking hours.
They say there’s the “Golden Hour” in which a wound that doesn’t instantly kill you is somewhat survivable if you can get into surgery and have blood transfusions and such. Or at least that’s what it’s like in advanced countries with 24 hour emergency rooms, especially in large cities. [Some add that a high crime rate, and many such incidents, basically gives the doctors more experience in treating such wounds, improving survival rates.]
Response time definitely has something to do with survival rates. I would love to see a news report on the those facts. Probably won’t happen, unless a victim’s family realizes that if this had happened on a Monday, fewer people would be dead. But, I’m sure the doctors will claim “Nothing could be done, they would have died anyway.” and dodge any blame.
Apparently Japan is not very good at handling mortal wounds.
You have a point, but consider the Aum Shinrikyo attack on the Tokyo Metro Subway in ‘95. Sarin gas released on numerous commuter trains underground with little to no ventilation during rush hour in the second most populous city in the world, and the death toll only reached twelve people, with fifty injuries. Consider the scale of the attack, the incredible strain on what emergency system exists from such a mass and unprecedented inrush of victims, and then compare it with terrorist attacks in other modernized nations. Twelve deaths in a large-scale nerve gas attack is miraculous, and would be even in a U.S. city with a much lower population density. Japan’s emergency response has plenty of holes, to be sure, but I wouldn’t knock it as sub-par.
jsut a question qhy are the hands of the arrested guy blurred in the video?
They always do that to somehow “hide” the fact that he’s wearing handcuffs, even though it’s obvious.
I can’t remember why though. Isn’t it to stop him looking 100% guilty and condemned? Well, if that is the case, it seems pretty pointless now.
Japan is turning into a really sick country. Crime rate here has been getting higher and higher for years. Japan’s recession in this decade would lead such hopeless young people like Kato to do the similar things.
It’s really horrible…
Yuki, crime in Japan is decreasing. You can take a look at this video that was posted on Japan Probe last week. The only reason crime seems to be increasing is because they report it more often on the news:
Crime rate not rising.
True crime rate is NOT rising.
Everybody saying “Crime rate is rising” because everyone else says it.
And recession is not the problem. Crazy Japanese people, and almost no mental health care is the problem.
News media showing crime stories IS rising.
Why?
Because it’s easy to report crime. No hard work. No research. No asking tough questions. Just get video, ask a few witnesses to talk, and then repeat what the police and government tell you. Easy.
By the way, did you know gaijin are “safer” than Japanese people, by police statistics? Japanese people are more dangerous than gaijin!!! And this Akihabara stabbing is more proof.
Nihonjin kowai!
Not sure what gaijin has to do with this topic at all. This Akihabara incident isn’t proof of anything other than the fact that a crazy guy with a knife can kill people.
Crazy people kowai!
Yes, this crime has nothing to do with gaijin or anything related to gaijin, I don’t know why Level3 brought that up.
Crimes committed by Japanese people get hyped up a lot on the news as well, including this one. If it’s a particularly insane crime (again, like this one), it also gets hyped up. However, just because these crimes always get hyped up doesn’t mean the crime rate’s increasing, Yuki.
I agree with everybody else that first of all, crimes doesn’t have anything to do with race. The fact that the perpetrator is a nihonjin doesn’t mean that all nihonjin are a wacko psycho.
Although from this incident, I think Japan should re-examine their mental health care system.
and if you feel that gaijin are safer than nihonjin, you definitely need to get your facts checked. I believe (don’t quote me on this one) America has a very high rate of violent crimes. (albeit decreasing)
I Just in there.
anyone never know killing that time
I known the kill was in akihabara many hours later
maybe, there are dont know this nightmare in this photo shot time too.
from JP a JP person
thx for read my broken english
I am glad you’re safe. I’m sorry this happened. Please take care.
thats crazy
What a prick, i had no idea about this today … it’s meant to be such a cool happy place to spend a Sunday and some fucker like this comes along.
A person could snap in any country. Japan’s crime rates are still among the lowest in the world, although they’re rising, like income inequality.
This kind of crime is particularly severe, but if you think about it, there isn’t much that can be done to prevent it. What surprises me is that a policeman had to stop him. Considering he was one man in a crowd with only a knife, even civilians could have stopped him.
Shameless idiots waving at the camera appear to be universal. Where’s their sense of decency? Do they really want to be spotted in a news broadcast about a killing spree?
I was also wondering why, in such a densely populated area, the people didn’t rush him or something, of course there is the chance of getting stabbed, but I have to say that if I seen him indiscriminately killing random people I would surely try to do something to stop him, find a pole or some other object or if I was in a vehicle, knock him down or something. I guess it’s hard to know the full details though, but I really do think that if we seen this story in some other countrys it would have been a bunch of civilians on top of the man restraining him until police arrived.
Well, here’s a crucial detail. It seems that he wasn’t going around wildly. He hid the knife and managed to stab quite a few people before there was a realisation of what was going on. For crucial moments there was just confusion as people started collapsing, before someone yelled a warning. And then people tried to stop him.
Looks like the stabber has a growth on one of his temples. Maybe he has brain cancer.
Looking at one of the photos above, the man responsible for the stabbing appears to have a growth on the side of his head. Perhaps he has cancer which has affected his mental state.
Wow, some of my friends where in Akiba on Saturday shopping; I’m so glad that they weren’t shopping in the area sunday. I’ve seen something similar first hand before (a hit and run fatality, not a hit-and-stabbing) and it’s horrible to experience it first hand and deal with shock and confusion that deals with something that serious.
This is a tragedy but I can’t understand why the people who saw this happening didn’t stop what they were doing, fight back, and try to restrain him. This seems to be a recurring theme in incidents like this in Japan, are Japanese people not taught to fight back when growing up?
You might want to read jod’s reply above for that answer.
this tragedy does sadden some japaneses out here.
Seriously, it just happened when people are planning for happiness. Lol.
Well, it’s not weird for this occurence, this probably a society problem, such as hectic bad days and strict rules, etc.
That’s a bad thing but fortunately the murderer didn’t use guns.
that is going to be more havoc since pedestrians are crowded in Akihabara.
This is terribly sad. My condolences to everyone who was assaulted and the victim’s family.
It’s sad when this happens anywhere in the world, but it hits especially hard when this happens in a place I’ve been several times and plan on going back to often.
Apparently predicted some 10 days ago at the 2ch.net
Truly hard to believe that something so horrible would happen in a place where batshit insanity (and paedophilia) is commonplace.
Surprised it took so long for some loser to light it up.
batshit insanity and paedophilia hadji? Tell me, what paradise do you live in? Disneyland? Narnia? You should use that pea sized brain of yours before you start making lousy generalizations with you mouth, Habib.
The media blaming otaku yet? Even though otaku are the victims here…
After having lived in Tokyo, this doesn’t surprise me. I also don’t believe the low crime statistics Japan reports. They purposefully limit what they report so that crime rates appear to be lower.
That reminds me of what the British government do, They say the crime rate is falling according to their figures, although their figures conveniently leave out any crimes against teenagers…It’s stupid.
Wow, some of those photos are really depressing to watch=/..
I have a question – I had the impression that he had just driven a 2-ton truck into the crowd and killed three people.
How did he get out of the truck and walk around stabbing people with a hidden knife before they realized what he was up to?
I would have though all eyes were on him?
Imagine that YOU are one of several of the thousand enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon on a vehicle free Chuo Dori when suddenly out of nowhere, you witness a truck barreling through some pedestrians. Chaos and mayhem proceeds to take place as no one really knows what is actually going on at that exact time. Your first thought might be its a traffic accident. Then all of a sudden, the driver comes out and proceeds slashing and stabbing anyone within his vicinity. Even more chaos and panic ensues. Rumors start going around in the crowd that there is a sarin gas attack, someone elses says someone has been stabbed, others fear it is a terrorist attack taking place. Given if YOU were in that exact scenario, what would YOU be thinking and doing?
Some of you clowns are good at being able to armchair analyze everything AFTER the fact. If you’ve never been in this sort of situation before (I have and you have little clue on what is really happening at the time), STFU and consider yourself lucky. Some who were there and maybe right next to one of the victims said that they were just lucky and that it could have been them; that you never know what is going to happen in life.
Very saddening.
sad story. what confuses me is that this guy (suspect) says he’s sick of everything, but when given the “opportunity” of “death by Police,” he just gives up.
such a selfish act to bring misery to others just because he is hurting. hoping that one of the media outlets (newspaper vs. TV?) will realize that it’s time to bring mental illness and awareness “out” instead of hiding or pretending it doesn’t exist.
yeah, I remember reading an article in the English Yomiuri shimbun about how there is finally a school for teaching sign language to deaf Japanese people.. before they were expected to lip read and such because otherwise it would have been socially awkward, or something like that.
Shameless people are smile and wave on tv while 7 lifeless victims there. What’s wrong with Otaku?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMZUq9P0uwg
Japan has such good image in my mind. I just hate why some physcho people do such brutal killings which lessen my interest in Japan. I know it’s not proper for me to say such. But that’s actually how I feel right now.
Kim, bad things happen everywhere and there’s little we can do to prevent such incidents. Fate was at work in Akihabara. However; we are to blame if someone from our community is pushed to the brink of irrationality, for it is our neglect of this troubled individual that silently allowed him to further believe that his actions would be justified in some manner, to himself. There was no one to talk him out of his plans or have him seek help…
My heart goes out to the families, relatives and friends of those whom we have lost forever.
This was a horrible incident, and my prayers go out to all the families involved. I live in Tokyo and this was quite shocking to me. I have great respect for the Japanese people and the culture.
I heard that the media “asked” the suspect’s parents to publicly apologize to the family of the victims and that the mother apparently collapsed in grief!
The suspect is a 24 year old man, what do his old parents have got to do with his crime? If this is true that this was instigated by the media, shame on them!
yea seriously. the parents (particularly his mother) are probably so ashamed, disappointed and shocked at what their own son had did. they probably had no idea their son had the psycho potential to go murder whoever te hell he wanted even if they done nothing against him.
it’s just like that case in America w/Virginia Tech where the korean kid’s parents try to commit suicide because they can’t bear to live w/the shame of their son mass murdering ppl and because the mass majority of America’s population is so ignorant, they start blaming and resenting ALL koreans for what that ONE korean individual did just because of his korean appearance, his one connection that supposedly makes the rest of the those with that one connection the same as him. the world is hell.
Assa Show Ya:
I was under the impression that Kato’s parents apologized without being asked by the media, but in many situations like this it is almost expected for parents to issue apologies. I think it’s messed up too.
Hana:
Do you have a link to a news article about the Virginia tech killer’s parents attempting suicide? I remember hearing rumors about that on the day after the shooting, but I could find nothing about such a claim in Wikipedia or a Washington Post article [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041104103.html?sid=ST2008041104178 ] about his family’s reaction to the crime.
How exactly is the American population blaming and resenting all Koreans because of the Virginia Tech shootings? I’m aware of some efforts that tried to make it seem like the Korean community should apologize for what happened, but that wasn’t the work of the American population: http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/04/18/what-the-hell-are-you-apologizing-for/
私は犠牲者が申し分なくあることを望む
I hope you didn’t mean that.
Better go study your Japanese or get a better translator.
what a shame people would be so foolish to try a stunt like that something that can only be done in a video game and get away with it .It’s not the same feeling you get when you actually take away someone’s like unlike a video game
This really is a tragedy. I noticed alot of posts saying how could this happen and what a sick guy. After living in Japan for awhile this kind of action makes sense to me. If you really start to understand the Japanese culture and what they go through I am surprised more peopel don’t go off their rocker. Japanese are amazing people and I have many Japanese friends so I don’t mean this in a bad way, I’m just sharing what I have seen personally during my time in Japan. The ammount of pressure from society, conformism, and shame that these people go through is absulutely unreal.
People say this just doesn’t make sense in such a perfect society. Well look at Japans suicide rates those figures don’t make sense either. They are right up there with the desperatly poor countries in which people have nothing to live for. Its just most people are in tune and respect society enough not to take people with them. Many people in Japan want to die and its sad. I would really encourage people to study Japan, learn about them. Try to start genuine relationships with them, and help them find some healing from such an opressive and confusing culture. Also remember no cultureis perfect and we sure as heck have a crazy amount of prolems here that. We could learn alot from the Japanese in things such as respect, community, etc.