#Japan #executes #man #stabbing
Japan on Tuesday executed a man found guilty of ramming and stabbing seven people in a truck in Tokyo’s popular electronics district of Akihabara in 2008, the Justice Ministry said.
Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said Tomohiro Kato “meticulously prepared” the attack and showed “strong intent to kill.”
“The death sentence in this case was completed by sufficient deliberation in court,” he told reporters.
“On the basis of this fact, after extremely careful consideration, I authorized the execution.”
Kato went on the stabbing on June 8, 2008 and told the police, “I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter who I killed.”
Shortly after the attacks, in which he rammed a rented two-ton truck into a crowd, he was arrested on the spot before getting out and stabbing people indiscriminately.
“This is a very painful case that has resulted in extremely serious consequences and has shocked society,” Furukawa said Tuesday.
Police said Kato documented his deadly trip to Akihabara on internet bulletin boards, typed messages into a cellphone while behind the wheel of the truck, and complained about his unstable job and loneliness.
The son of a banker, Kato grew up in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, where he graduated from high school. According to reports, he failed his university entrance exam and eventually trained as a car mechanic.
Prosecutors said Kato’s confidence plummeted after a woman he was chatting with online suddenly stopped emailing him after he sent her a photo of himself.
His anger at the general public grew when his comments on an internet bulletin board, including his plans to stage a shooting spree, drew no response, prosecutors said.
– support for the death penalty –
While awaiting trial, Kato wrote to a 56-year-old taxi driver whom he had injured in the stabbing, expressing his remorse.
The victims “enjoyed their lives, and they had dreams, bright futures, warm families, lovers, friends and colleagues,” Kato wrote, according to an issue published in the weekly Shukan Asahi.
And in court he offered remorse for the attack.
“Please let me take this opportunity to apologize,” he said of the bloody shooting that also left ten people injured.
After the 2008 shooting, Japan banned possession of double-edged knives with blades longer than 5.5 centimeters (about two inches), which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison or a 500,000 yen fine.
The attack was Japan’s worst mass murder in seven years, and Kato was sentenced to death in 2011, a decision upheld by Japan’s top court in 2015.
Kato’s execution is the first in Japan this year and comes after three prisoners were hanged in December 2021. These executions ended a two-year hiatus and were the first under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government.
Japan is one of the few developed countries to retain the death penalty, and public support for the death penalty remains high despite international criticism.
Executions are carried out by hanging, generally long after conviction. More than 100 people are currently on death row in Japan.
International interest groups have denounced the Japanese system, which allows inmates on death row to spend many years in solitary confinement before their execution, with only a few hours’ notice of their impending death.
Tuesday’s execution comes on the anniversary of another major knife attack — the 2016 Sagamihara shooting at a disabled facility that killed 19 people.
Japan also carried out the July 26, 2018 executions of six members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect responsible for the 1995 sarin attack and other crimes.
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