[darktruth]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=576771

A man has gone on a stabbing spree in a Tokyo neighbourhood famed for comic-book subculture, killing at least three people and leaving more than a dozen others injured, officials and reports said.

While the assailant's motives remained murky, the daylight attack fell on the anniversary of one of modern Japan's most ghastly crimes — a stabbing frenzy that left eight children dead at an elementary school in 2001.

A man swerved a truck into a crowd of pedestrians shortly after noon in Tokyo's bustling Akihabara area before jumping out and stabbing strangers.

Reports said the man had claimed to be a member of one of Japan's feared Yakuza crime gangs.

By the time he was subdued, 16 people were injured, some of them seriously, the fire department said.

Jiji Press and Kyodo News said that at least three people were dead — three men, aged 19, 47 and 74 — marking a rare deadly crime in a city famed for safety.

Reports identified the assailant as Tomohiro Kato, 25, who told police he was "tired of living."

"When I passed by, I saw a man collapsed on the street. He was stabbed in the chest and bleeding badly," a young woman told public broadcaster NHK. "He was unconscious."

Another witness said the assailant was screaming incoherently as he stabbed people around Akihabara, which was closed to motor vehicles on Sunday.

"I'm shocked to see this because I come here often," a man said.

Akihabara is best known for major electronics stores and in recent years has mushroomed into a haven for Japanese subculture, pulling in tourists from home and abroad interested in comic books and video games.

Akihabara's attractions include everything from a museum of Japanese animation to cafes where waitresses dress as maids and video-game characters, while it is also a major commuter hub.

Television footage showed ambulances with sirens blaring racing to the scene, as the assailant's white Isuzu truck lay abandoned with a shattered windshield.

Hundreds of people crowded around the area and looked on. Green plastic sheets were set up in the middle of an intersection to give privacy as medics gave emergency help.

It is seven years to the day since a mentally disturbed man went on a rampage with a butcher's knife at the Ikeda elementary school in the western city of Osaka.

Mamoru Takuma, who had an apparent grudge against children of the elites, stabbed to death eight children.

At Takuma's sentencing, the judge called the killings "one of the most heinous cases in Japan's criminal history." Takuma was executed in 2004 at the age of 40.

The elementary school attack stunned Japan, which prides itself on its safety and moved to step up security at schools.

But Takuma has also been the subject of a morbid fascination for a subset in Japan.

In 2004, a newspaper deliveryman tortured to death a seven-year-old girl he kidnapped, sending photos of the ordeal to the victim's mother.

At the trial where he was sentenced to death, the deliveryman, Kaoru Kobayashi, delivered a speech hailing Takuma.

I wonder if this is gonna put the otaku fandom in Akihabara in a bad light (not that it wasn't looked down upon in the first place anyway). I found it kinda strange that psychopathic man even said he was part of a yakuza crime gang but I guess it may be that he hated otakus.

[Lynk Former]

I like how you post this up as if crimed doesn't occur in Japan so this is extra special....

XD I dunno, that's just how it seemed.

[darktruth]

Oh I do know that crimes do occur in Japan, every country has it of course, duh. But it's not common for someone to be jumping out of a van in the middle of a street and then randomly stabbing people, especially in a place you'd least expect it to happen. Likewise, shooting people at universities and schools.

[Lynk Former]

Again... how is this different from every other country where this kind of unexpected thing happens all the time? It seems so unexpected because people don't usually take notice of crime in the first place unless it's thrust right in front of them for them to witness without being able to turn away.

[darktruth]

Better question is why do these types of crimes and incidents get reported internationally? Because they rarely happen in the international countries reporting it which fascinates the news media. Why else has the Austrian story of the father locking up his daughter and raping her made such bigs new all over the world?

Back onto the topic, an update on the incident says the man told the police "I am tired of the world. Anyone was ok. I came alone." I guess this is another case of a person with mental issues. Kinda the same as the Korean guy who went on a shooting rampage before committing suicide at Virginia Tech. The only thing I'm confused about is why he chose Akihabara to be the place to kill people.

[Lynk Former]

darky... have you been living under a rock or something? XD

[darktruth]

I guess maybe my earlier posts may have made me look like I haven't been watching the news for months XD. I'm sure if this was related anyway to video games then you'd be onto it Lynk lol however, Tokyo is a relatively safe place to live in and for something like this to happen out of the blue of course it's going to make big news.

Even the first article at the top of thread mentioned the last similar incident to this was seven years ago so that shows how rare these types of crimes occur. But I have heard that crime rates is beginning to go up in Japan, most particularly with the youth. I'm sure if some person started a shooting rampage and killed 7 people in New York where they claim to be the best and safest city in the world then it'd make big headlines.

[Lynk Former]

I'm sure if this was related anyway to video games then you'd be onto it Lynk lol

Akihabara is also known as for its electronics/videogames... also, I don't jump over every videogame related news which comes into view.


And I'm not attacking you on this, I'm attacking the very idea that people think that a few people dying in a very public act is international newsworthy material while individual murders, etc aren't.

The world stopped for 9/11, but you get fuck all reaction about other mass deaths which occur around the world, and in fact, unless people are made explicitly aware of it, they think it just doesn't occur.

The same applies to Japan, but what's worse in Japan is that there is a dark air of... how should I put this... the Japanese have a way of turning their heads and ignoring certain issues because it's a part of their culture to do so... many other cultures share this kind of... "ignorance"...


I don't know, the fact that people are shocked about this pisses me off for some reason.

[Chimasterwang]

He didn't beat the highscore which is 32 set by Cho Seung-Hui i think XD
So Lynk, did he do it with style? XP

[Analog]

Well, the latest talley is 7 dead out of 17 stabbed. That's a pretty darn high success rate for stabbings. What the heck kind of knife did he use?

And I suppose I'm a little shocked by this too. Yeah, I hear of killings every day on the news here in the US, but I've walked through both the streets in New York City and the streets of Tokyo. Lets just say that I was just a little more cautious in NYC than I was in Akihabara. XD

[Tacx]

try walking in the Philippines specially on manila at nigth, youre lucky if you only got mugged. what can i say i live on a third wolrd country we still need uncle sam and other rich countries to help us.