What happened earlier this week at Mazda Motor Corp.'s plant complex in Hiroshima reminds us of the June 8, 2008, murder spree in Akihabara, Tokyo. In the Akihabara case, a then 25-year-old dispatched worker at an auto component factory in Shizuoka Prefecture plowed into several people with a rented truck and then got out and stabbed others with a knife. Seven people died and 10 were injured.
In the Mazda plant complex, a 42-year-old former temporary worker at the carmaker hit 11 Mazda employees with a car, killing one and injuring 10, on Tuesday morning as employees were arriving for work. A kitchen knife with an 18-cm blade was found in a door pocket of his car.
The police quoted him as saying he had had a grudge against Mazda because he was fired by the company in April. He was also quoted as saying, "Because I was irritated, I hit people. I intended to kill them."