TOKYO: Japan upon Tuesday (Jul 26) executed a man convicted of killing seven people in a stabbing rampage in Tokyo’s popular Akihabara electronics district in 08, local media reported.
T he Proper rights Ministry declined to immediately confirm reports on national broadcaster NHK and other shops that Tomohiro Kato had been executed over the attack, which started with him traveling a truck into an audience.
Kato went on the stabbing spree on Jun 8, 2008, informing police: “I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter who I had created kill. ”
He was imprisoned on the spot shortly after the particular attacks, in which he rammed a leased two-tonne truck in to a crowd of people before getting out and randomly stabbing individuals.
Police stated that he documented their deadly journey in order to Akihabara on Internet bulletins boards, typing communications on a mobile phone from behind the wheel of the vehicle and complaining associated with his unstable job and his loneliness.
The son of a banker, Kato were raised in Aomori prefecture in Japan’s north, where he graduated from a top high school. He or she failed his college entrance exams and finally trained as an car mechanic, reports said.
Prosecutors declared that Kato’s self-confidence got plummeted after a girl he had chatted with online abruptly stopped emailing him right after he sent her a photograph of himself.
His rage against the general public increased when his remarks on an Internet message board, including his plans to go on a killing spree, had been met with no response at all, prosecutors mentioned.
While awaiting trial, Kato published to a 56-year-old taxi driver whom he or she injured in the stabbing spree, expressing his remorse.
The particular victims “were savoring their lives, plus they had dreams, vivid futures, warm families, lovers, friends plus colleagues”, Kato published, according to the Shukan Asahi weekly.
The attack was Japan’s worst mass killing in seven many years, and Kato had been sentenced to passing away in 2011, a decision that was upheld by Japan’s top court in 2015.
Kato’s execution is the initial in Japan this season and comes after 3 prisoners were hanged in December 2021.
Japan is one of the few developed countries to retain the death penalty, and public assistance for capital punishment remains high despite international criticism, specifically from rights groups.
Executions are usually carried out by dangling, generally long after sentencing.