7 dead in stabbing spree in downtown Tokyo

[DeclinetoState]

By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jun 8, 9:12 AM ET

TOKYO - A man who police said "was tired of life" drove into a crowd of pedestrians Sunday and then went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's top electronics and video game district, killing seven people and wounding 10, authorities said.

The deadly lunchtime assault paralyzed the Akihabara neighborhood, which is wildly popular among the country's youth. The killings were the latest in a series of grisly knife attacks that have stoked fears of rising crime in Japan.

A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, was apprehended in the attack, authorities said.

"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
More (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080608/ap_on_re_as/japan_stabbing)

From the end of the article:

In one of the worst attacks, a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan in 2001 and killed eight children. The killer was executed in 2004.

[DesertFox]

Time for Nipponese to arm themselves.

[Wolfcounsel]

The attacker could have added to the death count by getting himself shot by an armed citizen. But since firearms are not allowed in that civilized country, is that good or bad? Oh, I'm so horrified!
/off liberal tone

Farking liberal anti-self-defense assholes!

[DeclinetoState]

They'll have to ban knives, now. But how will anyone cut their meat at dinner time? Oh, they'll all have to go vegetarian, I suppose.

[Rhino]

They'll have to ban knives, now.
As mourners, some weeping, piled comics, flowers and other mementos at the scene of a deadly stabbing rampage, the government yesterday sought to impose tighter controls over large knives...

...Government officials quickly responded to the attack. In an emergency meeting, the ruling coalition considered limiting access to knives like the one used in the stabbing, which had a five-inch blade.http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2008/06/10/ap_stab_0610.ART_ART_06-10-08_A10_2FAESMB.html?sid=101

[hellinon]

Five inches? WTF? Thats the size of an average kitchen knife. No more sushi?

[Suzie]

Not often you hear "stabbing spree" in a sentence. Thank goodness.

[Wolfcounsel]

One can be killed with a little x-acto knife. Never mind 5 inches. Heck. An unsharpened pencil will kill anyone. A credit card. Ban those. See if that happens!

[DesertFox]

Best thing to kill somebody with is a black hole. Shove 'em down it. No evidence.

Lacking that, you can haul their ass to the sun and toss 'em in. On. Whatever the preposition is.

'Nother good trick is to run 'em thru a blender and then mix 'em with ReadyMix concrete and pour them into your new sidewalk. This one has the added attraction that you get to walk on the dead bastard as often as you like, "rubbing it in," so to speak.

Then there's the volcano dump. Drag their dead ass up to the edge of the caldera and heave-ho! Though the evidence doesn't get completely gone, it's close enough to gone for govt work.

[Rhino]

Lacking that, you can haul their ass to the sun and toss 'em in. On. Whatever the preposition is.Hither? Thither? Yon?

[DeclinetoState]

Video of the arrest:

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[DeclinetoState]

Tokyo Rampage Killer Said to be Into Otaku Culture

<table><tr><td valign="top">http://www.gamepolitics.com/images/tomohiro-kato.jpg</td><td>While there is no indication that video games played any role in Sunday's murderous rampage in Tokyo's high-tech Akihabara district, UK newspaper The Times reports that Tomohiro Kato, the 25-year-old killer (incongruously flashing the peace sign in photo at left), was into Japan's otaku scene:

Mr Kato appears to have led the average life of a young Japanese man from a small, provincial town... Perhaps most strikingly, he appears to have shared with tens of thousands of young Japanese men a passion for Akihabara and its maze of shops and boutiques that helped create Japan’s otaku stereotype.

Originally, the word otaku referred to a sub-class of youth culture which focused on the minutiae of various hobbies – everything from manga comics and video games to model robots and animated pornography. More recently, however, the otaku phenomenon has gone mainstream...</td></tr></table>
Link (http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/06/09/tokyo-rampage-killer-said-be-otaku-culture)