A man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for a stabbing spree last year that left one woman dead and another seriously wounded in the Keio Line's Hachioji Station in western Tokyo.
Presiding Judge Kazunobu Yamazaki of the Tokyo District Court's Tachikawa branch said Shoichi Kanno, 34, intended to mimic a widely publicized rampage through the Akihabara electronics district the previous month with the intention of upsetting his parents and letting them know about trouble he was having at work.
Kanno pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder, but his lawyers sought a lighter sentence than life imprisonment on grounds that he has a mental disability.
A psychological evaluation found that Kanno does have a mental disability but that he can tell right from wrong to a certain extent.
Prosecutors demanded a life sentence, arguing Kanno was mentally competent.
Kanno, a company employee, was charged with fatally stabbing Mana Saiki, 22, with a kitchen knife and seriously wounding a 21-year-old female customer in the shop on July 22, 2008.