Akihabara Stabbing Spree Leaves 7 Dead In Tokyo
By billywest • Jun 8th, 2008 • Category: The Latest
Shortly after noon today (Sunday, June 8th), a man with a survival knife stabbed several people in Akihabara, Tokyo, leaving 7 dead and 10 injured (last the time this article was updated). It was reported that he drove a truck into a crowd of pedestrians before getting out and stabbing random victims. Paramedics set up a mini-emergency room in the middle of a busy intersection in Electronic Town and worked aggressively on the injured. Large blood stains on the street could be observed from overhead news helicopters.
A 25-year-old man, apparently from Shizuoka Prefecture was arrested for the stabbings. He said he was tired of his existence, and early reports say he claimed to be a gangster. The suspect’s name has been reported as Tomohiro Kato. The man had arrived in a rental car from Shizuoka, and has admitted that the attack was planned. As you might have expected, “Daredemo yokatta,” he said.
For those of you who live here in Japan, or follow the news on a regular basis, you know that these random “Daredemo Yokatta” attacks are nothing new, and are actually becoming par for the course. A few months ago, a man in Ibaraki Prefecture stabbed several people in a train station. Prior to that, a teenager knifed random shoppers in a busy Shinagawa shopping arcade. Random stabbings and slashings of women by middle-aged men happen so frequently in Japan these days that they rarely make headlines anymore.
The Akihabara stabbings made Yahoo.com’s headlines within two hours of the incident. From the Yahoo story:
Once rare, stabbing attacks have become more frequent in Japan in recent years as violent crime has increased. In one of the worst attacks, a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan in 2001 and killed eight children.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, there is a societal sickness here in Japan that is breeding these kinds of attacks. In America, there are shooting sprees; here there are stabbing sprees. What makes it scarier here is that people are in close proximity to large groups of strangers much of the time. We never know when some batshit-crazy lunatic holding a knife is going to decide to just start pulling people’s cards.
I don’t fear becoming the victim of an attack most of the time here in Tokyo because I’m confident in my ability to take care of myself. It’s like I told Spartancus one time on a crowded Tokyo train with a tense atmosphere, “If someone comes at me, he’d better have a lot of heart because I do.” However, with your back turned to a nutjob who you don’t suspect of being ready to kill, it’s possible that you’ll become one of his victims.
This brings up my question to you: How aware are you of the people who surround you in crowded areas here in Japan when you are out and about? Do you worry that you may find yourself at ground zero when one of these mentally malfunctioning scumbags finally has his switch flipped? Given how common random stabbings have become, how prepared are you to deal with such a situation?
The names of those who lost their lives in this tragedy are:
Mai Muto (武藤 舞) - 21
Katsuhiko Nakamura (中村 勝彦) - 74
Kazunori Fujino (藤野 和倫) - 19
Mitsuru Matsui (松井 調理師) - 33
Kazuhiro Koiwa (小岩 和弘) - 47
Naoki Miyamoto (宮本 直樹) - 31
Takahiro Kawaguchi (川口 隆裕) - 19
For more information regarding the deceased, visit Yahoo.co.jp/Headlines
Loading …
billywest is a resident of South Tokyo and lives on the Toyoko line.
Email this author | All posts by billywest | billywest 's website
Akihabara Stabbing Spree Leaves 5 dead…
Tragedy in Akihabara today (Sunday, June 8th). Are you worried about your safety here in Tokyo, or elsewhere in Japan?…
Nothing can prep you for these incidents. Just being self-aware is the best defense. I wonder how the attacker was finally stopped.
[Reply]
Samonac reply on June 8, 2008 11:52 am:
Even tough he had a knife, I heard some policemen, or just some japanese people, jumped at him and immobilized him.
[Reply]
This is nuts! While I don’t fear these type of attacks while in Tokyo it would be very hard to defend against in a crowd where people are often innocently bumping into you.
[Reply]
[…] Akihabara Stabbing Spree Leaves 5 DeadThe Akihabara stabbings made Yahoo.com’s headlines within two hours of the incident. From the Yahoo story:. Once rare, stabbing attacks have become more frequent in Japan in recent years as violent crime has increased. …7:10 to Tokyo - http://www.sevententotokyo.com pay per click advertising […]
I’m surprised at the sensationalism of this article. Has anyone ever heard of the deviance amplification theory? Well look it up on wiki if you’re not sure, but basically one could argue that because articles like this drive home the “commonness” and “regularity” of these kinds of attacks, attacks actually do rise because potential criminals see the action as either glamorized or not so bad. Fear of crime in the hearts of common citizens is part of why criminals are so often able to get away with their crimes. Lets not forget about the millions of people that move around Tokyo unmolested their entire lives. These people are in the majority, not the other way around.
[Reply]
Do you really think there’s a high level of sensationalism in this article? I put this article forward to see how people living in Tokyo (and elsewhere in Japan) felt about their personal safety given the rise of these kinds of incidents. What do you propose? Just ignore such issues since the “majority of people move around Tokyo unmolested,” right? Bury your head in the sand if you want, but incidents like this are a wake-up call, as far as I’m concerned.
[Reply]
Hey Bill, don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate your article as it is the most detailed that I was able to find on the net about this killing spree. I’m simply saying, let people draw their own conclusions about their relative safety based on the number of incidents. I’m sorry perhaps sensational wasn’t the right word, but I personally feel that a scared public is not necessarily a safer public. My heart goes out to the victims and their families as well.
Cheers
j
[Reply]
Thanks, j
Certainly, people are free to draw their own conclusions. And, I don’t hope for a scared public. It’s just that horrific events like this one shock us all. If anything, I hope not for a scared public, but one more aware that the possibility of this kind of event recurring is there.
I live in Japan. I was going to go to Akihabara at that time, but I decided to stay to study for my exams…
Now I understand the “Studying will save your life” sentence…
Does anybody know what will happen to the man? Execution?
[Reply]
This is a shocking incident, and my heart goes out to those involved and their families.
However despite what the media likes to portray, random murders are not becoming more common in Japan. The H.19 police crime report (http://www.npa.go.jp/toukei/seianki6/h19hanzaizyousei.pdf) is a treasure-trove of statistics on the matter. P.58 chart 4-1-(2)-7 details the number of toorima-satsujin jiken (random, on the street killings - the daredemo yokatta phenomenon) - it’s both low (4-10 per year), and seemingly on a downward course over the past ten years.
Also on p.56, we see that overall homicide rates are largely flat (and low) over the past decade. Unsurprisingly, you are more likely to be murdered at night than during the day, and overwhelming more likely to be murdered at home over anywhere else. Table 4-1-(2)-5 on p.57 puts pay to the youth-murder spree myth - rates have fallen among the 14-19 group, and indeed in every age group up to 59. Over 60’s have been murdering more (some of this has to do with the demographic shift, but even so - the grandparents are bumping each other off like never before). Finally on p.60, chart 4-1-(2)-9 demonstrates that Japan is much like any other country - you hurt the ones you love. Over 85% of murders are committed by a relative or acquaintance.
As terrible as these toorima-satsujin incidents are, you’ve only around a 1 in a million chance of being murdered by someone you didn’t know in Japan. And the trend seems to be downwards. I wouldn’t be too worried about it.
[Reply]
Thanks for digging through the stats, Chris.
How about random stabbings and slashings, not necessarily resulting in murder? Declining trend or not, I read about these incidents quite often in the news. I mean, if there are less now than in the past, then the past was pretty bad, IMO..
[Reply]
Woundings seem to be on the decline as well (p.20 onwards) having risen and peaked about 6 years ago, now standing at 15,000 per year - of which less than 2% involved a knife or sword. So a 2 in a million chance of being randomly wounded.
As for random stabbings, the Japanese version of Wikipedia lists only 3 this year (including today’s), so in line with the numbers for the last decade. Maybe the reason you are reading about them more often is that media is making a bigger thing of them (although I remember there was huge coverage of the incident in Ikebukuro back in ‘99) - it’s certainly not that they are any more common than before.
[Reply]
Chris, I can say with absolute confidence in my memory, that I’ve seen more than 10 random stabbing
reports in the news in the last few months. Just to shoot down Wikipedia’s information, there’s the case of an elderly woman who was stabbed to death in labeled random stabbing in Fukuoka in April. Three weeks before that, a woman was stabbed in the same area by a person believed to be the same one that stabbed the elderly lady. Then, you can add in the Ibaraki random stabbings in March, one of them was in an entirely separate incident. Also, don’t forget the teenager that stabbed several people in a Shinagawa shopping arcade in January. I recall several schoolgirl slashing incidents as well, including a couple in Kariya, Aichi.
With the increasing number of suicides of life-tired people (or is it just chemical detergent that’s making more staggering news? I don’t know) and those who can turn to be psychos, I’d say I’m a bit scared now than ever. A few days ago a man was killed stabbed while at Yokohama station waiting for bus, and an apartment owner stabbed to death by a tenant only because of cat. Not counting the series of schoolgirls slashing in Saitama. I used to never mind others’ business in public place, but from now on seems everything has changed.
[Reply]
[…] Akihabara Stabbing Spree Leaves 5 DeadThe suspect’s name has been reported as Tomohiro Kato. The man had arrived in a rental car from Shizuoka, and the attack seems to have been planned. For those of you who live here in Japan, or follow the news on a regular basis, …7:10 to Tokyo - http://www.sevententotokyo.com […]
[…] Akihabara Stabbing Spree Leaves 5 DeadThe suspect’s name has been reported as Tomohiro Kato. The man had arrived in a rental car from Shizuoka, and the attack seems to have been planned. For those of you who live here in Japan, or follow the news on a regular basis, …7:10 to Tokyo - http://www.sevententotokyo.com […]
[…] And this, which is completely different but kind of shocked. Just saw this on spanish news too, and watching it right now on jap tv XD: Akihabara Stabbing Spree Leaves 7 Dead In Tokyo […]
I walk around like a paranoid badass, that thinks the world is trying to punch his ticket, too soon.
I grew up in gangs so for me the evil in man has been displayed to me, and by me.
I beg the lord that someday i can witness such an event if only to take the weapon and carve the piece of shits heart out with his own knife.
[Reply]
Chris B, you sound like a complete wacko and sound like you have similar personality to the killer, who was a self proclaimed gangster!
[Reply]
Will,
I think Chris expresses anger that a lot of people feel about events like this. Why would you call him a “wacko” for relating his life experience and how it has affected him? I’d be willing to bet that the personality of yesterday’s killer is more like yours, Will ; uptight and all-talk.
[Reply]
“Uptight and all talk” … hit the nail on the head there Billy.
I should say, the killer’s personality was more like Will’s. Unfortunately, Mr. Kato graduated from being all-talk.
C’mon man, this article is a waste of space. What is the population of Japan? And how many people get stabbed from these kinds of scenerios per year? Don’t be a fool and worry too much, a crazy dude picking ya is like picking from an army of ants.
[Reply]
Oh, well since you put it that way…
[Reply]
Japan had 1.1 homicides per 100,000 people compared with 3.5 in France, 3.2 in the U.K. and 5.6 in the U.S., according to Japanese government figures published last year.
And also who deleted my last post?
[Reply]
What’s your point? This article wasn’t about comparisons. Are you saying that until things get as bad as they are in France, the U.K., or the U.S., we shouldn’t worry too much about the situation here?
And, your last comment was a reply to someone else’s and is nested in the space for comment #12.
[Reply]
We have too much violence in the UK, but our recent spate of stabbings in London has been down to teenage rituals and relationships, possibly with drugs involved in some cases. This is random and self-determined, which is more worrying.
Bigwill, Beanieville, Chris B - all the comparison and retaliation in the world won’t change anything. The developed world (both communist and capitalist) warehouses people in urban settings and leaves them with the means and motivation to do crazy things. Japan should worry about the situation, but more important, should take action now, before the social cohesion which makes it a largely safe and pleasant place completely disappears. Maybe it’s too late for that but Japan needs to try. It wouldn’t do the rest of us any harm either.
I’m not advocating a return to Meiji-era deference, but there should be a balance between rampant individualism - the right to kill someone because you’re bored - and total conformity.
[Reply]
@Bigwill
Messages like that are better in person. I know I’d enjoy it more
“C’mon man, this article is a waste of space”
WTF does that mean??
7 people died and the story of their death is a waste of infinite internet space??
P.S.
[Reply]
“Messages like that are better in person” - extremely amusing Chris!
[Reply]
I ride the Los Angeles subway to work. I like to stand next to the door. Partly because the train actually gets pretty crowded. But partly so I am more alert and I have all the passengers in view in front of me. I have seen a lot of wirdos on the LA subway.
[Reply]
Typical American you are, hear one random act of violence and start puffing out your chest and saying, “that wouldn’t happen to me.” Think, jackass. First, this insults/blames those who were injured/killed, as if to say they weren’t brave or skilled enough to defend themselves. Second, it just makes you look like a boasting windbag cynically looking to promote his personal machismo at the expense of innocent victims.
We heard it after 9/11, we heard it after Virginia Tech, I’m tired of it. Shame on you.
[Reply]
“I don’t fear becoming the victim of an attack most of the time here in Tokyo because I’m confident in my ability to take care of myself. It’s like I told Spartancus one time on a crowded Tokyo train with a tense atmosphere, “If someone comes at me, he’d better have a lot of heart because I do.” However, with your back turned to a nutjob who you don’t suspect of being ready to kill, it’s possible that you’ll become one of his victims.”
First sentence: I said, most of the time. Not 100% of the time, most of the time. I didn’t say, “Hey, I can take all comers.” I just stated that I feel confident enought that most of the time I’ll be ok. I then went on to say that even self-confident people can end up victims if they’re caught unaware. I’ve basically expressed the feeling that we are all vulnerable to surprise attacks. I expressed my feelings because I’ve asked the reader to express his or her feelings about feeling susceptible to an attack like this.
I don’t feel that the victims of the Akihabara incident were in any way not brave or were incompetent to defend themselves. Anybody who’s read the news stories knows that 3 of the victims were killed by the truck and the others were taken by surprise. They were likely in total shock. It’s ridiculous that you’ve stated I’ve implied anything negative toward the victims. The point made was that face to face and prepared to fight is one thing; being taken by surprise in a random attack is another. If I had been in that intersection at that time on that day, I would’ve stood just as great a chance of becoming a victim as anyone else did. Did I say anywhere in this article that I would’ve kicked ass if I were there during the incident? I didn’t, did I, Jackass. In fact, I said this,
“However, with your back turned to a nutjob who you don’t suspect of being ready to kill, it’s possible that you’ll become one of his victims.”
This is an expression of a feeling of vulnerability in the case of such attacks, not boasting.
But, I suspect you’re probably too stupid to get it anyway. Have a good life.
[Reply]
[…] To Tokyo posted this update quite soon after the news broke (explaining why the title is ‘5 dead’ not 7) and was […]
You said “I don’t fear becoming the victim of an attack most of the time”
and then
“with your back turned to a nutjob who you don’t suspect of being ready to kill, it’s possible that you’ll become one of his victims”
notice: I, you
[Reply]
That’s ‘you’ in the general ‘everybody’ sense. Fairly common usage in the English language. For example, ‘You have to be careful when crossing the street.’
I noticed that you’ve omitted the “however” part of the sentence, “However, with your back turned to a nutjob who you don’t suspect of being ready to kill, it’s possible that you’ll become one of his victims.” That word ‘however’ has a significant meaning within that paragraph. Nothing subtle about it.
Nice try, though.
[Reply]