Daily Archive for June 9th, 2008

Games, Runner Ups, Yakuza, and Killing Sprees

Published
by
Shance
on June 9, 2008
in General
. 4 Comments

Tomohiro Kato being arrested by police.

This news totally came to light yesterday, and I wasn’t really planning to write something about a bad event happening somewhere near my vicinity. But the conscience of a person who needs to put his concern out can’t be defeated on my case, so I’ll put it out.

7 people were killed and a least 11 more are injured when a person in a white cream suit drove a truck in the middle of the road in Akihabara (called Akiba in short) district, got out with a knife in hand, and started stabbing people at random. A simple motive drove Tomohiro Kato, 25, into his rage: “I’m tired of life. I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter who I’d kill.”

The dead included five men - three aged 19, 47 and 74 - and a woman, according to a Tokyo metropolitan police officer. The gender of the seventh person was not immediately known. Eleven others were wounded, police said, with two in critical condition.

Chaos.

Surprisingly, there were events that link to the said spree:

  • A week and a half ago, someone posted a thread in 2channel (a popular japanese forum) under the title “[News] In Akihabara, an Xbot ninja will be involved in a tragic slashing spree” with the text “Soon after 5th June, this is guaranteed to happen, so I thought I’d post ahead of time”. Whether the killer is the poster himself is yet to be determined.
  • A similar stabbing spree happened 2 months ago in another district, killing 1 person. Coincidence or not, the stabbing was done by a Dead or Alive runner up champion. Because of the “Xbot ninja” thread, the killing today was attributed by some to the Ninja Gaiden 2 launch, also by the same company.
  • Today is also the seven-year anniversary of the Ikeda elementary school killings in Osaka, where 8 children were killed.

CNN later reported the news:

Like everyone else who has heard the news, may the deceased rest in peace as I give my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the said victims.

Special thanks go to ahbonk.net and akibablog for the news and material.