To most of Japan, the deadly stabbings in Tokyo on June 8 were an incomprehensible act of sudden and indiscriminate violence.

But to readers of an obscure Web site called Extreme Exchange, Revised, the attack in the popular Akihabara shopping district that left seven dead was foretold.

Suspect Tomohiro Kato sent messages saying he wanted to kill somebody, anybody, and apparently hoped to be stopped. But his words were lost in a million postings.