Authorities suspend Akihabara’s “pedestrian paradise”
For 35 years, Tokyo’s Chiyoda-ku has closed some major roads to vehicle traffic on Sundays and created a “pedestrian paradise,” making a nice atmosphere and preventing sidewalks from overcrowding in the popular shopping area. However, authorities have announced that they are planning to suspend the Akihabara “pedestrian paradise” following the knife rampage that occurred last weekend. It is not clear how long the suspension will last, but sources have said it will continue until at least the end of July.
Here’s a Fuji TV news report about the decision:
Pedestrians interviewed were generally surprised and disappointed by the decision, and I have to say that I am too. There’s simply no logical reason why authorities should close down the “pedestrian paradise.” This does nothing to stop a copy cat criminal from repeating the crime- anyone can rent a truck and drive into pedestrians by jumping a curb or waiting for crowds to walk across a crosswalk, and a determined madman could attack people on a sidewalk just as easily as in a vehicle street.
Combined with police tactics that include walking around with menacing nightsticks and searching random people, this new policy will no doubt make Akihabara less appealing to shoppers and tourists.
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um…. dumbest shit ever. I have a feeling this will last forever, and I kinda wonder if this guy was put up to this for the NPA to have a reason for the ban.
Anyone who didn’t call this doesn’t know a lot about Japan.
Also, el oh el.
So true. Saw this coming a mile away.
I was wondering what would push the authorities over the edge, after crazies started to appear like the BB gun “rampage” a little while back, but I didn’t expect it to be of a tragedy on that scale…
This decision makes no sense.
It looks like part of the general repression of unconventional behaviour that has been happening for some time in Akihabara and other places.
Now that is stupid, I knew that the Japanese are cautious when it comes to treating crises but this is just a shot in their own knee. Why is it that since 9/11 our reaction to tragedies is to lock everything up and hide at home? Back in the day people just went on with their lives and everything could return to normal like it should. Giving lunatics that kind of publicity is the completely wrong way to address the situation. Now this idiot can rejoice because of the fact that what HE did stopped Akihabara. Just what he wanted. Thanks cowardly governments of the world. It’s your fault the terrorists win.
Its a knee jerk reaction by the powerless & helpless authorities.
….Wtf does 9/11 have to do with Japan?
Its the people who sit there and let the government
do whatever without raising a red flag or protesting,
or even just petitioning against the decisions, that
let ” the terrorists win “.
Be a change if you want to see one.
Though I do agree that looking so deeply into someone
who obviously is lacking in fries to his happy meal,
isnt a wise thing. Not every person who watches anime
turns into a knife wielding psycho. Just like not
every over-pressured college student goes on a rampage
because his parents didnt buy him a new Economics book
or whatever.
Im sure everyone is familiar with the term ” the one
idiot of the bunch ruins it for the rest of the [class] “.
The usual idiotic response in the west after a tragedy such as this is to ban guns/knives/menacing knight sticks etc…
Japan has raised the bar by trying to ban crowds.
Bravo.
Not the right decision but with all the press and events over the last 12 months it doesn’t come as a surprise.
This will only concentrate the pedestrians on the sidewalks for easier run overs.
That was my first thought as well.
Not only that, buy you can get more hits in on a crowded sidewalk when the meat has fewer avenues of escape.
That said, I think this would have happened eventually anyway, the way Akiba has been treated by authorities lately. This event just gave them an excuse to bump up the schedule.
Damn, guess they can no longer take pictures of hot girls who pose on the streets on Sundays.
It’s called Security Theater:
“Security theater consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.”
The guy is a psychopath. Can’t do anything about nutcases. Yeah, saw the end of the pedestrians-only street area coming. In case the people in charge haven’t noticed, it’s pretty easy to find a crowd in the major cities.