Dante Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 A man armed with a knife has killed seven people and injured 10 others in central Tokyo, Japanese media say. The incident occurred in the Akihabara district, a busy shopping area known as Electric Town that is popular with young people and tourists. A suspect, said to be 25-year-old Tomohiro Kato, has been arrested. Police spokesman Jiro Akaogi told reporters: "The suspect said he came to Akihabara to kill people. He said he was tired of life". The dead include six men, ranging in age from 19 to 74, and a 21-year-old woman, Kyodo News said. Reports say the suspect drove a rented truck into a crowd in the early afternoon and then began stabbing people at random. James Slaymaker, a British man working in Japan, got to the area shortly after the stabbings. He described the scene to BBC News: "As I walked down the street, I noticed there were a lot of police cars. I noticed there was a guy literally just lying there with tape on his eyes and blood pouring out of the side of him. I was appalled. "I could see carnage - bodies everywhere. Some were conscious, some were not, lying by the side of the road and on the road. There were people everywhere, a lot of onlookers." Another eyewitness told Kyodo News: ''The man jumped on top of a man he had hit with his vehicle and stabbed him with a knife many times. Walking toward Akihabara station, he slashed nearby people at random.'' Crime increase The Akihabara district specialises in electronic gadgets and video games and is especially popular with people interested in comic books and distinctive fashion. It is also home to one of the first shops to sell personal robots and robotics. The area is often crowded on weekends. Once rare in Japan, there has been an increase in knife crime in recent years. In January, a 16-year-old school boy armed with two kitchen knives injured several people on a crowded shopping street in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The Akihabara attack occurred on the same date that a man with a history of mental illness went through a primary school in 2001, stabbing children at random. Eight children died and 15 pupils and teachers were injured in that attack, in a school in Ikeda, in the city of Osaka. But about a week and a half ago, a thread was posted on 2ch Game Hardware board under the title "[News] In Akihabara, an Xbot ninja will be involved in a tragic slashing spree", with the text "Soon after 6/5, this is guaranteed to happen, so I thought I'd post the thread ahead of time." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog-amoto Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 That's crazy. If it were in Europe or America, I bet it would be blamed on GTA4, especially as you can drive a truck into a bunch of pedestrians and stab people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Oh damn. I read about this yesterday but hadn't heard about the 2ch posting "predicting" the event. That's twisted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 The man suspected of killing seven people in a knifing rampage in Tokyo foretold the mayhem in a series of messages posted to the Internet, including one just before the attack saying, "It's time," police and media reports said Monday. Tomohiro Kato, accused of ramming pedestrians with a truck on Sunday and then stabbing 17 bystanders in Tokyo's Akihabara district, posted a string of messages on an Internet bulletin board from his cell phone, a police spokesman said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol, refused to release the messages, but news reports said they were posted in a threat titled, "I will kill people in Akihabara," starting hours before the stabbings. "I want to crash the vehicle and, if it becomes useless, I will then use a knife. Goodbye, everyone," Kyodo News agency quoted one message as saying. That was followed chillingly several hours later, the report said, by a message sent from Akihabara via phone that read: "It's time." The killing started 20 minutes later. Newpaper has the words "Evil Deeds of the Akiba Nerds" "`Nice Guys', "Pedos", "Speed Freaks"" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbob Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Completly crazy this, if in Europe or America GTA IV would be blamed. But as it is in Japan, what will get the blame if anything is blamed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The fish Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Completly crazy this, if in Europe or America GTA IV would be blamed. But as it is in Japan, what will get the blame if anything is blamed. Maybe someone will realise he was just bat-fuck crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stefkov Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Looking around you can find pictures of the where it took place and stuff. Blood on the streets. A cop taking the guy down who did all this aswell. And that thing about the thread was only about Ninja Gaiden according to Kotaku. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyson Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 This is just like one of my Japanese Animes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympic Gamer Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Heads up guys Apparently video gaming has already been linked. Apparently he had a blog and originally aimed for this event to happen on the 5th, which was the launch date of Ninja Gaiden too, which would of been full of gamers. Also he apparently had numerous self drawn sketches of characters from the Tales series, so apparently the media there are picking up on the video game links. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluey Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 ...*ahem*..... OH MY GOD I HOPE BLUEY'S OK DOESNT SHE LIVE CLOSE TO THAT AREA??! you know... i wouldnt have heard of this unless one of my friends IN ENGLAND feigned concern for my wellbeing over msn... i've seen/heard nothing on the news/in the paper/from students here... (granted i'm not actually allowed to bring it up during lessons in case i offend anybody by talking about death >___>) this place is weird... i can merrily wander around my local park at midnight safe in the knowledge that i'm VERY unlikely to be mugged or raped ...or mugged and raped.... yet i'm slightly on-edge when i'm in a large crowd in very touristy places... only then am i worried about pickpocketing foreigners or weirdo pakistani factory workers asking for my number... or my underwear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympic Gamer Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 ...*ahem*..... OH MY GOD I HOPE BLUEY'S OK DOESNT SHE LIVE CLOSE TO THAT AREA??! you know... i wouldnt have heard of this unless one of my friends IN ENGLAND feigned concern for my wellbeing over msn... i've seen/heard nothing on the news/in the paper/from students here... (granted i'm not actually allowed to bring it up during lessons in case i offend anybody by talking about death >___>) this place is weird... i can merrily wander around my local park at midnight safe in the knowledge that i'm VERY unlikely to be mugged or raped ...or mugged and raped.... yet i'm slightly on-edge when i'm in a large crowd in very touristy places... only then am i worried about pickpocketing foreigners or weirdo pakistani factory workers asking for my number... or my underwear. But surely if the members here believe no unfortunate incidents happend to yourself, they must have faith and confidence in your survival abilities, hence no worrying was required Just my theory though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluey Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Heads up guys Apparently video gaming has already been linked. Apparently he had a blog and originally aimed for this event to happen on the 5th, which was the launch date of Ninja Gaiden too, which would of been full of gamers. Also he apparently had numerous self drawn sketches of characters from the Tales series, so apparently the media there are picking up on the video game links. also! of course they are - video games are the source of all live's troubles... i've run out of parmesan cheese - if that isnt directly linked to the release of ninja gaiden i'm not sure WHAT is!! O__O! DAMN YOU, NINJAS!!! ...also... the japanese media especially loves to pretend that all of lifes problems can be linked to some prominent and easy to define subculture ~ makes it easier to explain, and therefor sweep neatly under the rug. it's especially easy to blame otaku for unusual crimes (since the otaku serial killer a few years ago...) ... (look it up - i dont wanna explain it >_<) so they'll just jump at the chance, ne. "the nail that sticks out shall be hammered down" and all that. But surely if the members here believe no unfortunate incidents happend to yourself, they must have faith and confidence in your survival abilities, hence no worrying was required Just my theory though ...not sure there's much ability involved in avoiding being randomly stabbed while shopping ^___^ but thanks for taking the trouble to GLOSS OVER the fact that EVERYONE FORGOT MEEEEE *runs away and cries!* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympic Gamer Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I originally thought it'd be a Hikkomori case to be honest, those are the most mentally unstable demographic of Japan, but it seems this guy was frequently out and working etc, not sure what exactly happend to trigger him being 'tired of life' which he said to the police. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinist Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Maybe he just felt like it. If i could read japanese i'd be looking through 2ch to try and see why he did it, but it could just turn out that hes just a selfish dick and felt like killing people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stefkov Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 These people were doing what you see whilst the reporter was reporting on the killings. People like that are idiots. Several Doujin mags were found in Kato's apartment (yesterdays killer) and apparently he said that he only had interest in "anime and the 2D world" and also that he enjoyed singing anime songs - video clip at fnn.The media and everybody else in high places (government etc) is going to come down on anime and otaku culture like a ton of bricks. I can see this leading people to think that we who enjoy anime are a dangerous bunch of people. They've always wanted to put restrictions on anime/doujin and it looks like they now have the perfect excuse. Indeed. He was a pretty good drawer though. Waow. Just looking at some past reports like this in Japan and the general thing from them all is that they all wanted to experience killing. They all said 'anyone would do'.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LazyBoy Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 This might sound unsympathetic, so I apologise if it does, but does it surprise anyone else that this guy killed 17 before someone was able to stop him? I mean he was an anime fan, you could probably blow the guy over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The fish Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 This might sound unsympathetic, so I apologise if it does, but does it surprise anyone else that this guy killed 17 before someone was able to stop him? I mean he was an anime fan, you could probably blow the guy over. It did strike me as odd that people neither tackled him nor ran. It was only 7 people he killed, by the way, but all the same... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluey Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I originally thought it'd be a Hikkomori case to be honest, those are the most mentally unstable demographic of Japan, but it seems this guy was frequently out and working etc, not sure what exactly happend to trigger him being 'tired of life' which he said to the police. i'da thought the salary men would be the most manically depressed bunch around here ~ work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, continuously wake bluey up with your sliding door at 3-a-fucking-m, work, eat, sleep and so on... ..but ny next door neighbor seems like a pretty happy chap... i dont get the "mr. stabby" vibe from him, anyway... ^__^ i realise the guy was a nutcase, right... but i have difficulty understanding why people who are TIRED OF LIFE chose to kill *other people* and not themselves... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympic Gamer Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I lol'd so hard, the legends of Akihabara every one! The dude on the bottom emulates my London Expo pose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The fish Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I lol'd so hard, the legends of Akihabara every one! The dude on the bottom emulates my London Expo pose The dude on the bottom looks uncannily like (I think) Hellfire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog-amoto Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Completly crazy this, if in Europe or America GTA IV would be blamed. But as it is in Japan, what will get the blame if anything is blamed. I'm sure there's an echo in here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigo Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 You guys shouldn't dismiss particular aspects of the videogame/animé sub-culture as automatically having no influence over people's actions. Obviously there isn't a direct causal link, but when a terrible crime such as this occurs the logical thing to do is to examine the man's lifestyle and wonder how he could have ended up with such a twisted perception of the world. From the sound of things, videogames and animé encompassed this guy's lifestyle, and so it's hardly unjustified to examine the culture of those things. We shouldn't say 'some people are just insane' and leave it at that - that would be naive. At the least I think regular exposure to very violent media (be it films, videogames, animé or whatever) does desensitise people to actual physical violence. That's quite plain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tellyn Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 It's a terrible thing to have happened, but why are the media automatically jumping on videogames? They'd laugh if it was suggested that it might have been influenced by a book or a film. Reminds me of the Japanese guy in Gremlins 2 who wanted to take pictures of the Gremlins attack when they were in the cooking show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Emblem Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 This is really a serious event. He could have killed and injured a lot more if the police weren't as quick as they were. Also, though I may not know you Bluey, I'm glad you weren't involved or worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emasher Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 This is awful. And if Jack Thompson does so much as a single interview, Its going to take all my will power to not buy a ticket to Miami and... well you get the idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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