Crime
Japan executes Tomohiro Kato, perpetrator of massacre that shocked the world in 2008
Tomohiro, also known as the "Akihabara killer," ran over three people and then stabbed four others in the middle of an event
July 26, 2022 2:13pm
Updated: July 27, 2022 7:20am
Japan on Tuesday executed Tomohiro Kato, the perpetrator of one of the country's deadliest events in recent years, in which seven people were killed and ten injured in a busy electronics shopping mall in Tokyo.
Tomohiro Kato, 39, known as the "Akihabara killer", was hanged at the detention center in Tokyo where he was being held, according to a press conference held by Japan's Minister of Justice, Yoshihisa Furukawa.
Kato was sentenced to death in 2011 for fatally running over three people with a truck and killing four others with a knife in a tragedy that shocked the world.
Minister Furukawa explained that Kato struck "indiscriminately, leaving seven dead after thorough preparation," in a case that "significantly influenced Japanese society." He added that he signed the execution order on the 22nd "after careful consideration."
"The Akihabara Killer”
After running over five people—three of whom were killed—Kato got out of the truck and stabbed a dozen people, four of whom died. The event shocked Japan, which banned pedestrians from the area on Sundays until 2011.
Kato was sentenced to death in 2011. In 2015 the sentence was finalized after being rejected by Japan's Supreme Court for a final appeal by the defense, which argued that the defendant was not in full control of his mental faculties at the time of the events because of severe psychological stress.
At the time of the incident, Kato was working at an automotive parts factory in Shizuoka province, west of Tokyo, which was undergoing a downsizing process.
Three days before the event, he left the factory screaming out of fear of losing his job. The next day he did not go to work.
Kato announced his intentions through several messages sent to a website specializing in mobile content.
"I'm going to kill people in Akihabara. I'm going to hit them with my car and when the car is destroyed, I'm going to use a knife. Goodbye everyone," Kato had written that Sunday morning.
Kato's execution is the second that has taken place in seven months in Japan. After a two-year hiatus, the country brought back capital punishment last December, two months after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took office.
This execution brings the total number of inmates on death row in Japan to 106.
