The Tokyo District Court on March 24 sentenced a 28-year-old former temporary worker to death for indiscriminately attacking and killing pedestrians in June 2008 in Akihabara, a popular shopping and tourist district in Tokyo packed with stores selling electronics goods, anime and other pop-culture products. Seven people were killed and 10 others were injured in an atrocious act that shocked the nation.
What led the defendant, Tomohiro Kato, to commit such a crime greatly puzzled survivors of the attack, relatives of the murder victims and ordinary citizens. The fact that he gave advance notice of his intention to commit the crime via a mobile-phone bulletin board and that he stated after his arrest that he had not cared whom he attacked also caused a sensation. Although the court sentenced Kato to hang, the trial failed to uncover a convincing motive behind the crime.
Around 12:30 p.m. on June 8, 2008, the defendant drove a two-ton truck into a crowd of pedestrians at an intersection in Akihabara, killing three and injuring two. He then exited the vehicle and, armed with a dagger, fatally stabbed four people and injured eight others. He attacked a police officer but failed to injure him. The crime happened on a day when people thronged Akihabara's main avenue, which at the time was a pedestrian-only zone on Sundays and holidays.