A crazy goes crazy in a crazy part of Tokyo
A chilling story for you here, which most of you have probably read about by now so I will try and give you a different slant and opinion on it. The news event I am talking about is the one which happened in the Akihabara district of Tokyo yesterday, in which a man went on what I believe constitutes a “spree”, killing 7 people and injuring 10 others.
For those that have yet to read the story, here is a brief summary. This guy, 25-year old Tomohiro Kato rented a truck in Shizuoka Prefecture, on the way to Tokyo. Once he got to the Japanese capital he headed to the Akihabara district. This is a popular area of Tokyo with both Japanese and foreigners. It is the electronics district of Tokyo and on Sundays some of the main roads are pedestrianised. Arriving in Akihabara at 12:30pm, this man proceeded to ram his truck into a bunch of people. He then got out and started stabbing wildly with a 13cm-bladed survival knife, aiming first for the people he had hit with the truck (slower targets) and then anyone he could get to, as he headed into the labyrinth of alleys in Akihabara. The police acted quickly (and deserve commendation for their actions), restrained & arrested the man, and seized his knife. Kato told police, “I came to Akihabara to kill people… I am tired of the world… Anyone was OK. I came alone”. At the time of arrest he was only charged with attempted murder as none of the suspects had died, but since then 6 men and 1 woman between the ages of 19 and 74 have died. The deceased have been confirmed as Mai Muto (21), Kazuhiro Koiwa (47), Katsuhiko Nakamura (74), Mitsuru Matsui (33), Kazunori Fujino (19), Naoki Miyamoto (31), and Takahiro Kawaguchi (19).
Now I don’t know about you, but I am getting a little tired od this “I am tired of the world” excuses for people going out killing others here in Japan. It is far too convenient and seems to be the fashionable excuse for murders or suicides. But this is the excuse he used and it is story that has shocked Japan, being the biggest killing spree since a man killed 8 children and injured 15 after entering a primary school in Ikeda (coincidentally or not, which occurred 7 years to the day before this one). These killings are happening, not on this scale as such, but at an increasing rate here in Japan and so far a reaction has been to stick your head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening, thereby not disrupting the wa (harmony) in “beautiful Japan”. Surely this even will cause people to sit up and take a look at these crimes, and suicides that are happening, and think about what is going on in Japanese society for something like this to happen.
It looks like this guy wanted the attention, as news is coming to light today that Kato was running a play-by-play commentary on his actions throughout the day, by posting messages from his mobile phone to an internet messaging site. It all started at 5:21am when he posted “I will kill people in Akihabara”. It continued, “I want to crash the vehicle and, if it becomes useless, I will then use a knife. Good bye, everyone.” A couple of other posts then read “Getting caught while Ifm carrying out my mission will perhaps be the worst outcome.” It looks like his journey started at just after 6:30am, when he posted “It’s time. I’m off”. He rented his truck at about 8am in Shizuoka prefecture, and just before that sent a message saying, “No postponement because of rainy weather.” He confirmed his arrival in Akihabara with a post at 11:45am and then commented “Today, itfs a epedestriansf paradise,f isnft it?”, remarking at the closed off streets, with people free to walk down the roads. A final message of “It’s time” was posted at 12:10pm, shortly before the killing started.
It is currently unclear, but reports seem to currently be indicating that it was a sole police officer that wrestled the man to the ground and got the knife on him, and maybe he was one of the people injured. The officer(s) involved in pinning down this man and preventing further deaths should be commended, and pushed forward as the hero(es) of the day. I have no doubt that this will not happen, and that the officer’s name will not even be mentioned in future reports, as it is missed out of current ones. Also, despite multiple comments from police, I have to say I am surprised that the mayor of Tokyo, Mr Shintaro Ishihara, has failed to say anything to reassure the public yet. He is always very quick to comment on crimes anywhere throughout Japan committed by foreigners on Japanese people, but you would think this event would provoke a soundbite or two. Could he make a link between this event and the foreigner-produced Grand Theft Auto games that could have inspired it? You may think I’m joking but I wouldn’t be so surprised if something like that came out of his lips.
At this time, thoughts go out to the families of the deceased and that this man is given the full wrath of the Japanese justice system. As for the suspect, the only couple of things I am surprised at is that, firstly, he is employed (although if he wasn’t he would never have enough money to rent a truck); and secondly, that he is not from Saitama. On a personal note, when I heard about this story I checked in with the ex, who lives up in Tokyo. She’d just arrived in Akihabara to go shopping about half an hour after the incident, and had no idea what had happened.
I was actually talking about crime in Japan with my sister the night before this incident happened. I was saying that, although Japan is relatively safe compared to most countries, the number of bizarre crimes is much much higher. I mean, in the UK you might get someone in their late teens killing someone by stabbing them or shooting them. People read about this and are shocked. In Japan, you read stories about a 16 year old who kills his mother and then decapitates her. The head is then put into a shopping bag as the boy goes to the nearest police station. The bag is then placed on the desk at the station as the boy states “Here is my mother’s head”. Notice the slight difference there?! But then the aftermath of a single killing goes on for days and often weeks in the UK newspapers. Here, after the initial story, it is very unlikely it will ever be mentioned again. Very strange, but that’s the way it works.
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I could’ve been there. My partner and I have just arrived home from Osaka where we spent a disproportionate amount of time in DenDen Town. It was a toss-up between Tokyo and Osaka this time for us and Osaka won through only because airtickets there were cheaper. So we could well have been in Tokyo shopping in Akihabara when that incident happened! I’m glad we weren’t cos if I’d been chased with a knife I’d probably have tripped over my laces.
When I was in Osaka the biggest stories on the news were 1) some old lady owner of a high-end restaurant announced its liquidation, 2) the remains of a young lady who was murdered by a psycho was found in water pipes near her home, and 3) a man who randomly stabbed two youths and a lady in kyoto fled to and was sighted in Shinjuku. I could be wrong though as I know very little Japanese!
Jan,
Thanks for the comment! It’s single comments like that that make me want to continue writing about things here in Japan. I really wish I was writing about brighter topics, but Japan seems to be in a bit of a dark patch at the moment regarding crime and suicides, so I felt that I should write about it.
How did you find Osaka anyway? I like it as a city, but feel it is a city made for the people who live there, rather than tourists. It’s a nice hub for travelling to places like Kyoto, Nara and others in the Kansai region though.
Dave,
Please keep writing, it’s interesting to have a different perspective of Japan other than the bog standard Japanese food and wacky Japanese culture (read: gadgets) type stuff in all the other blogs.
I like Osaka. There’s so much to do and see, but you are right, there’s not that much touristy stuff around for sightseeing purposes. I don’t mind that though because just walking around observing the people and looking at products for their daily usage and eating their food is good enough for me. That’s my idea of sightseeing; looking at all the different things they have and use. What I’d love is to go to a local supermarket, not the kind in the posh department store basements but the kind the housewives go to for their daily bargains. Unfortunately those are probably all based out in the residential areas and I have no idea how to locate one.
I’ve never actually been to Nara. My next goal is Hokkaido or Okinawa!
Hokkaido was nice during the snow festival. I went there in 2005 and the shock of going from about 20C in Okinawa to -13C in Hokkaido was something quite impressive!