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Japan Times
2 days ago
- Japan Times
Victims mourned 17 years after Akihabara indiscriminate attack
Mourners visited Tokyo's Akihabara district Sunday, marking the 17th anniversary of an indiscriminate attack there that left 17 people dead or injured. Some voiced concerns that memories of the tragic incident may be fading. Shinichiro Murase, 55, a civil servant from the city of Yokohama, said that he was visiting Akihabara on the day of the incident in 2008. The sounds of helicopters made him aware that something had happened, Murase recalled. He then saw crowds of people as well as fire engines and ambulances, but still did not exactly know what was going on. Murase comes to Akihabara and lays flowers for the victims almost every year on June 8. "I hope an indiscriminate attack will never happen again. It's truly senseless." Shinya Todama, a 32-year-old corporate worker from the city of Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, visits Akihabara every year on the memorial day to pay tributes to those who lost their lives in the attack. Todama said he feels the incident is gradually being forgotten, noting that the number of bouquets laid at the site of the tragedy is decreasing year after year. He said: "No matter how many years pass, the wounds of the bereaved relatives will not heal. It is important that even a single person continues to remember the incident." In the incident, which happened shortly after 12:30 p.m. on June 8, 2008, the attacker, Tomohiro Kato, plowed a truck into a holiday pedestrian zone in Akihabara, hitting passersby one after another. He then randomly attacked others with a knife. Seven people, age between 19 and 74, were killed in the attack, and 10 other people suffered injuries. Kato was immediately arrested on the scene on suspicion of attempted murder. He was indicted in October 2008 on charges including murder. Kato's death sentence was finalized by the Supreme Court in February 2015, and he was executed in July 2022.
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Japan Times
Police officer recounts fatal rampage in Akihabara 17 years on
With Sunday having marked the 17th anniversary of a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district that left seven dead and 10 injured, Tokyo police officer Akihiro Okuda recalls "It was an event that made me think deeply about the lives of surviving victims after the incident." The stabbing happened shortly after 12:30 p.m. on June 8, 2008. At that time, Okuda, now a superintendent at Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), was playing soccer with his son near his home because the day was a Sunday and he was off work. Upon learning of the incident from a phone call from his boss, he rushed to the MPD's Manseibashi police station, where an investigation headquarters had been set up to cover the rampage. During the incident, the culprit, Tomohiro Kato, rammed a truck into a holiday pedestrian zone near Akihabara Station, hitting several pedestrians before randomly stabbing others with a knife. Kato's death sentence was finalized by the Supreme Court in February 2015, and he was executed in July 2022. After the deadly rampage, the MPD established the first task force dedicated to supporting the survivors and bereaved families of crime victims. The task force was comprised of a total of 44 police officers. Okuda stayed at the police station for three days after the incident, setting up a waiting room for bereaved families and transporting them to and from hospitals. He also accompanied bereaved relatives to a morgue that was set up nearby. Some of them broke down in tears. One woman lost her husband in the Akihabara attack and stood crying bitterly next to her young son, Okuda recalled, adding "I couldn't find a word to say." Later, Okuda took charge of the process of paying crime victim benefits to one temporary worker in his 20s who was stabbed by the attacker and seriously injured. After the incident, the man quit his job and shut himself in his house in Tokyo. Okuda repeatedly visited his house for benefit payment procedures, but the man consistently refused to meet Okuda. Okuda thought that the man must have been "scared of meeting people" and would "remember the incident as long as he lives in Tokyo." Okuda contacted the man's parents in Hiroshima Prefecture, believing that it would be better for him to rebuild his life at the parents' home. Partly because of the parents' efforts to persuade their son, the man returned to his hometown in Hiroshima home about a year after the incident. Months later, the man's parents expressed gratitude to Okuda, saying that their son had started making efforts to find a job thanks to him. From time to time, Okuda wondered how the man was doing. But he stopped short of contacting him so as not to remind him of the incident. Okuda is now working to pass on his experience offering support to victims of crime by speaking to young officers at police stations and police academies across the country. "I want to tell them about the importance of supporting crime victims so that they can find hints for future paths," Okuda said.
Hindustan Times
01-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Japn man arrested in Osaka for deliberately driving into 7 schoolchildren
Japanese police arrested a man after they said he ploughed his car deliberately into seven primary school children in the western city of Osaka on Thursday. The children, who had been on their way home from school, were injured and rushed to hospital but all seven remained conscious. An Osaka police official, who declined to be identified, said the driver was a 28-year-old man who lives in Tokyo and gave AFP an account of what he said after his arrest. "I was fed up with everything, so I decided to kill people by ramming the car I was driving into several elementary school children," the official quoted the man as saying. Police are holding him on suspicion of attempted murder, the official said. The children are aged seven and eight and police said the most serious injury was a fractured jaw suffered by a seven-year-old girl. The other six, all boys, appeared to have suffered comparatively milder injuries that included bruises and scratches and they were under examination, police said. The car was "zigzagging" as it hit the children, with one girl "covered in blood and other kids suffering what appeared to be scratches", a witness told Nippon TV. The driver was wearing a surgical mask and "looked like he was in shock" after he was dragged out of the car by school teachers, Nippon TV quoted a witness as saying. Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan but shocking incidents do sometimes occur. In 2008, Tomohiro Kato rammed a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd of pedestrians in Tokyo's Akihabara district, before getting out and going on a stabbing spree in an attack that killed seven people. "I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter who I'd kill," he told police at the time. Kato was sentenced to death and hanged in 2022. Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven industrialised economies to retain the death penalty, and there is overwhelming public support for the practice. Before the 2008 attack, Kato complained online of his unstable job and his loneliness. Prosecutors said his self-confidence had plummeted after a woman he chatted with online abruptly stopped emailing him when he sent her a photograph of himself.
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Time of India
Japanese police arrest man after car ploughs into schoolchildren
TOKYO: Japanese police arrested a man after they said he ploughed his car deliberately into seven primary school children in the western city of Osaka on Thursday. The children, who had been on their way home from school, were injured and rushed to hospital but all seven remained conscious. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now An Osaka police official, who declined to be identified, said the driver was a 28-year-old man who lives in Tokyo and gave AFP an account of what he said after his arrest. "I was fed up with everything, so I decided to kill people by ramming the car I was driving into several elementary school children," the official quoted the man as saying. Police are holding him on suspicion of attempted murder, the official said. The children are aged seven and eight and police said the most serious injury was a fractured jaw suffered by a seven-year-old girl. The other six, all boys, appeared to have suffered comparatively milder injuries that included bruises and scratches and they were under examination, police said. The car was "zigzagging" as it hit the children, with one girl "covered in blood and other kids suffering what appeared to be scratches", a witness told Nippon TV. The driver was wearing a surgical mask and "looked like he was in shock" after he was dragged out of the car by school teachers, Nippon TV quoted a witness as saying. Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan but shocking incidents do sometimes occur. In 2008, Tomohiro Kato rammed a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd of pedestrians in Tokyo's Akihabara district, before getting out and going on a stabbing spree in an attack that killed seven people. "I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter who I'd kill," he told police at the time. Kato was sentenced to death and hanged in 2022. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven industrialised economies to retain the death penalty, and there is overwhelming public support for the practice. Before the 2008 attack, Kato complained online of his unstable job and his loneliness. Prosecutors said his self-confidence had plummeted after a woman he chatted with online abruptly stopped emailing him when he sent her a photograph of himself.
New Straits Times
01-05-2025
- New Straits Times
Man arrested in Japan after car ploughs into children
TOKYO: A man was arrested in the Japanese city of Osaka after allegedly ploughing his car deliberately into seven schoolchildren today, local media said. The children, who had been on their way home from school, were injured and rushed to hospital but all seven remained conscious, public broadcaster NHK and other outlets said. Police could not immediately confirm the reports to AFP. The driver was a 28-year-old man who lives in Tokyo and Osaka police have held him on suspicion of attempted murder, the reports said, citing unidentified investigative sources. NHK said the man admitted the charges to police and stated that he was "fed up with everything, so he rammed the car into them thinking to kill someone". The car was "zigzagging" as it hit the children, with one girl "covered in blood and other kids suffering what appeared to be scratches", a witness told Nippon TV. The man was wearing a surgical mask and "looked like he was in shock" after he was dragged out by school teachers, Nippon TV quoted a witness as saying. Violent crime is rare in Japan, but shocking incidents do sometimes occur. In 2008, Tomohiro Kato rammed a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd of pedestrians in Tokyo's Akihabara district, before getting out and going on a stabbing spree, in an attack that killed seven people. "I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter who I'd kill," he told police at the time. Kato was later sentenced to death and hanged in 2022. Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven industrialised economies to retain the death penalty, and there is overwhelming public support for the practice. Prior to the 2008 attack, Kato complained online of his unstable job and his loneliness. Prosecutors said his self-confidence had plummeted after a woman he chatted with online abruptly stopped emailing him when he sent her a photograph of himself.
