Posts Tagged ‘akihabara’

Police swarm around Akihabara, bully man for legal possession of a swiss army knife

Following last weekend’s knife attack in Akihabara, the area was overflowing with cops yesterday. As one might have been able to predict, no copycat knife rampage took place. Instead, police officers spent the day searching for killers than did not exist, at one point bullying a man after finding a swiss army knife in his bag.

The man, who was apparently aware of his legal right to carry such a small knife, shrugged off threats of arrest from an officer. He was quickly surrounded by 18 police officers, because a dull-bladed tool knife is supposedly a very serious thing. After spending an hour and half attempting to bully and intimidate the man, the officers allowed him to leave.

[story via Danny Choo, photo via Mike's room]

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 FTV 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.

Should Japanese police use their guns?

Yomiuri’s English edition has an article about the police response to the Akihabara stabbings [emphasis added]:

An assistant police inspector, 53, from the traffic division of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Manseibashi Police Station was tending to a man who had been hit by the truck when the suspect came up from behind him and stabbed him in the lower back.

Looking calm, the knife-wielding man glanced over the scene of pandemonium he had created.

Kato fled when another police officer carrying a baton approached him, running, waving the knife from side to side, counterclockwise half way round the crossroads. As shoppers bolted, the suspect stabbed one after another from behind before running off to the south.

[...]

A sergeant from the station’s Akihabara police box caught up with the suspect about 50 meters from the crossroad and thrust his baton at him, but Kato then ran into an alley.

The sergeant, 41, seeing that the man was holding the knife in his right hand and offering resistance, edged closer with his baton raised. He drew his pistol and ordered the man to drop his weapon, at which point the fight seemed to go out of the suspect. He dropped his knife.

The Telegraph offers a bit more detail on the use of police batons:

Kato was struck several times with a baton by a police officer – to little effect – and was eventually subdued when the officer drew his handgun.

Based on these reports, the situation seems to have been ended by the police officer’s gun. Batons were practically useless, and in the case of the first officer who chased Kato, a failure to pull a gun on the murderer allowed further slashing and stabbing to take place.

Nobody wants Japan’s police to become trigger happy and start killing off criminals every chance they get. However, in cases where use of a firearm could prevent violent criminals from causing injury and death to bystanders, Japanese police should be encouraged to use their guns. When police see a man with a knife stabbing people, the first thing they reach for should be their gun – not a baton.

Bloggers respond to the Akihabara killings

How have Japan’s English language bloggers responded to the killings that took place in Akihabara yesterday? Here are a few excerpts from notable posts:

Adamu of Mutantfrog Travelogue commented on the police response (a comment I wholeheartedly agree with, if reports about the police officer’s actions are accurate):

Apparently a policeman chased this man with his baton — and actually parried with him as he ran and apparently was still stabbing people — and only drew his gun AFTER Kato had put down the knife. Three words for the Japanese cops — SHOOT TO KILL!

Marxy predicts an “Otaku Moral Panic”:

They already found some anime-style drawings from the suspect — something extremely ubiquitous among almost everyone in Japan — but the images will point the blame squarely at “pop culture.” (Will his middle-school tennis club picture lead to a crackdown on clay courts nationwide?) That being said, I don’t think this guy chose Akihabara just because it’s a “popular area,” as if Shinjuku or Ikebukuro would have sufficed. There will be some kind of link.

Patrick Macias has also written about the media focus on otaku morality:

The timing could not have been worse. The energy was already flagging in Electric Town as the area was slowly becoming a police state in the wake of crackdowns on street idols and cosplayers (the TV is now praising the already-elevated police presence in the area, saying there would have been more mayhem if not for them).

Danny Choo has posted a list of recent random stabbing attacks, expressing concern over such crimes:

The worst thing about these killings is the “just wanted to kill anybody” factor with no other particular motive and that they happen in broad daylight on innocent people going about their business.

Debito used the occasion to bring attention to a store in Akihabara that has a sign stating it will not sell knives to minors and foreigners. It wasn’t long before Debito edited the post to tell readers he had convinced them to change the sign:

I mentioned that there are many different types of NJ in Japan, and not all of their customers are simply leaving afterwards. He said that they don’t mind selling to NJ with addresses in Japan as long as they present ID. I said that that’s not what the sign out front says, and suggested he change the sign to reflect what he just told me.

Information about the reaction of some Japanese bloggers can be found at Global Voices online, where Chris Salzberg has written a very informative post.

All our updates about this story so far:

1. Stabbing rampage in Akihabara [Tokyo]: 7 people killed
2. Tomohiro Kato – Akihabara Killer
3. Bloggers respond to the Akihabara killings
4. FTV focuses on Akihabara killer’s love of anime
5. ‘Wanted’ video targets Akihabara idiots