The Akihabara Street Rampage
The Akihabara Street Rampage
Japan executes man who killed 7 in Tokyo
Tomohiro Kato committed one of the most shocking mass murders in Japan’s recent history in June of 2008, and was hung for it yesterday at the Tokyo detention center.
He was 25 years old when he drove a rental truck into a crowd of pedestrians in the Akihabara shopping district, slamming into people and killing three pedestrians. He then got out of the vehicle and stabbed four people to death and also injured or wounded 10 others. He was detained by hopeless Japanese police at the scene and later admitted his crimes at his trial, saying he was angry about online bullying.
I remember the incident well. I was on the same train, the Sobu line, as Akihabara and had actually passed that station about 15 minutes after it happened. I had no intentions of getting off there that day, so I wouldn’t have been at the scene of the crime if I had been 15 minutes earlier, but I do remember the train stopped and we were stuck inside for about 45 minutes.
In those days, nobody had a smartphone. We all still used the old flip phones and Japanese flip phones had the ability to turn into a TV if you put the screen sideways. People on the train all knew what was happening as soon as the rest of Japan did.
The locals were shocked and as I write this I instantly think of the recent murder of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe as the kind of level of shock that was on display on this day.
My haunting image of this event is not the tragic loss of life, but the Japanese police and their spectacular failures. They refused to engage with the knife wielding murderer, only subduing him after cornering him in a back alley. It took FOREVER to arrest him and they used a long stick like baton to do it. You could have played Benny Hill in the background and it would have been perfect.
A handgun has been part of the standard equipment for the Japanese police force since 1949 after it was introduced by the Allies during their occupation after World War II, and the Japanese police have not upgraded their guns since the 1960’s. They see no need to, because police here don’t use guns. On this occasion they should have. The result would have been less civilian deaths and Kato still dead.
Japan is an extremely safe country and yes, I know that sounds a bit of a cliché. It's only when you live here that you realise just how different Tokyo is from every other big city on earth. Taiwan is also very similar, some say even safer, although I’ve never lived there. The sort of petty crime that's common in London or New York just doesn't exist here in Tokyo. One crime that happens a lot here though is family crime. Murders within families are often in the news, but dusted under the rug the day after.
Violent crime is something you barely think about in Tokyo, at least as a man. When violent attacks do take place though, it sets off a lot of alarm bells. The crime sparked a huge debate in Japanese society at the time about random killings, online influence, and failures to support the mental health of young people. In response, laws on knife ownership were also tightened - an immediate response was taken.