A man convicted of stabbing seven people to death during a frenzied attack in Tokyo 14 years ago has been executed, Japanese media said.
Public broadcaster NHK and other media said Tomohiro Kato, 39, had been hanged on Tuesday for the June 2008 hit-and-run, which began when he drove his two-ton truck into a crowd of pedestrians. in Akihabara, a district of the capital known for its electronics stores and geek subculture.
He then got out of his truck and fatally stabbed seven people, including a man he had run over just moments earlier.
Kato, a loner who had complained of being “tired of life,” told police at the time: “I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter who I killed.” The attack was Japan’s worst in seven years and hit a country with very low rates of violent crime.
He was arrested shortly after the attacks after a confrontation with an armed police officer, and had documented his trip to Akihabara on Internet bulletin boards, typing messages on his mobile phone from behind the wheel of the truck and complaining of his work and his unstable feelings. of loneliness
Kato had visited the area several times and knew it would be full of shoppers and tourists drawn to its discount stores.
The son of a banker, Kato grew up in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, where he graduated from a top high school. He failed his university entrance exams and eventually trained as an auto mechanic, according to reports.
Prosecutors said Kato’s self-confidence had plummeted after a woman he had been chatting with online suddenly stopped emailing him after he sent her a photograph of her.
His anger grew when his online comments, including his plans to kill, received no reaction, prosecutors said.
While awaiting trial, Kato expressed his remorse in a letter to a 56-year-old taxi driver he injured during the stabbing. The victims “were enjoying their lives and had dreams, bright futures, warm families, lovers, friends and colleagues,” he wrote, according to a copy published in the weekly Shukan Asahi.
Kato was sentenced to death in 2011, and the Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2015.
His execution comes as Japan continues to resist international pressure to abolish the death penalty.
Prisoners typically spend years awaiting execution and are given only a few hours’ notice before being led to the gallows, a practice that prompted two death row inmates to sue the government in 2021, claiming it was “inhumane” and unconstitutional, as it does. not giving convicts enough time to contact their lawyers to file an appeal against the execution order.
Japan’s use of the death penalty, which is usually imposed in cases involving multiple murders, has long been criticized by international human rights organizations for the mental anguish it causes.
In a 2009 report, Amnesty International accused Japan of subjecting death row inmates to “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment.
Opinion polls, however, show high levels of public support for capital punishment, especially after high-profile crimes such as the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by members of a doomsday cult end of the Supreme Truth of Aum.