Man on trial over Akihabara stabbing spree pleads guilty

TOKYO, Jan. 28 Kyodo -
The man charged over a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district in June
2008 that killed seven people and wounded 10 others pleaded guilty at the Tokyo
District Court on Thursday.
Tomohiro Kato, 27, said at the first hearing of his trial that he is
''certainly the one who committed the crime'' although he cannot remember some
parts of what happened during the Sunday afternoon attack.
''I'm sorry for the people who died and got injured,'' said Kato, who was
wearing a white shirt and black suit, bowing his head in apology.
Prosecutors argued in its opening statement that Kato ''did not receive decent
treatment'' at the office where he was employed as a temporary worker and
''felt that what he wrote about on a cellphone website was being ignored.''
''So he hit on the idea of getting other people to acknowledge his existence by
erupting in anger and committing a major crime,'' they said.
Kato allegedly gave advance warning of his crime on the website along with a
number of posts in which he vented his frustration with his workplace.
His defense lawyers argued it is doubtful if he was fully competent at the time
of the crime, while denying part of the indictment by saying the defendant did
not have any intention of killing one of the injured persons.
The prosecutors said, meanwhile, that Kato was inspired by a similar
indiscriminate stabbing spree in March 2008 in Ibaraki Prefecture as well as an
April 2005 incident in which three people were killed after a truck crashed
into a shopping arcade in Sendai.
''It is apparent that he kept these incidents in mind and decided to kill
people at random in Akihabara, where he had been a number of times before,''
according to the prosecutors.
In their opening statement, the defense lawyers said it is necessary to examine
Kato's background and the cellphone website to clarify the motive for his
crime.
The trial is expected to focus on a psychiatric examination that found him
mentally competent at the time of the crime.
The prosecution indicted Kato on charges of murder and attempted murder based
on the result of the psychiatric evaluation.
Kato has been charged with running down five pedestrians, three of whom died,
with a truck in a vehicle-free shopping area on June 8, 2008, and fatally
stabbing four passersby with a dagger after getting out of the vehicle.
Eight others were injured in the stabbings, while one policeman was attacked
but unharmed, according to the indictment.
The incident in the electronics shopping area, also a popular district with
comic and animation fans, drew attention to the plight of temporary workers.
No citizen judges are taking part in the trial because Kato was indicted in
October 2008, before the law on the lay judge system took effect.
The next hearing will be held Feb. 1.
==Kyodo