Ex-temp worker sentenced to death over Akihabara stabbing rampage

TOKYO, March 24 Kyodo - A former temporary worker who has admitted to carrying out a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district in 2008 was sentenced to death Thursday at the Tokyo District Court in a case that sent shock waves through Japan.
Tomohiro Kato, 28, ran down five pedestrians, of whom three were killed and two were injured, with a truck in a vehicle-free pedestrian zone in Akihabara on June 8, 2008, and fatally stabbed four passersby with a dagger after getting out of the vehicle, the ruling said.
Kato also stabbed and injured eight other people.
''It's an inhumane and cruel act. It's not an exaggeration to say that all of Japan was shocked by it,'' Presiding Judge Hiroaki Murayama said in handing down the death sentence as prosecutors demanded.
The court rejected the defense counsel's claim that Kato was mentally incompetent, saying he has the ability to assume criminal responsibility for the crime he committed.
Kato's lawyers said after the ruling the defense counsel will consider whether to appeal the sentence.
Kato had posted messages on an online bulletin board on which he complained about his job while giving notice of his intention to commit the crime.
The court concluded Kato became stressed and irritated after the bulletin board, the only place where he felt he belonged, was trolled since late May in 2008, and the disappearance of his work clothes from his workplace exacerbated his anger.
Kato wanted to tell people to ''stop harassing him by committing a major crime,'' the court said, adding that ''the loss of his family, friends and job gave him a strong sense of isolation.''
The court judged that the crime was premeditated as Kato expressed his intention to commit the crime on the bulletin board three days before the rampage, and that killing seven innocent people is ''grave'' and his motives are ''selfish.''
The court did cite some factors that are favorable for Kato, but added they do not change its decision on capital punishment.
It said Kato's personality due to ''inappropriate'' upbringing by his mother is the remote cause of the incident, while noting the possibility cannot be completely ruled out that he could be rehabilitated as he has come to realize the importance of facing the victims' family members.
Arguing he was mentally competent, the prosecutors said during the trial that Kato had tried to fight back in response to people who had harassed him on the bulletin board, branding his act as ''self-centered.''
They said his insecure employment, an inferiority complex about his appearance and his lack of success in getting a girlfriend had also led him to commit the crime.
His defense counsel, in seeking leniency, had argued that his mental competency was diminished at the time of the crime, saying he lost part of his memory.
Kato has told the court, ''Now I think I should not have committed the incident and regret what I have done...I feel sorry for the victims and their families and the people injured.''
The incident led to the revision of the firearms control law to ban the possession of daggers and to the suspension of the car-free pedestrian zone, which was resumed in January on a trial basis.
Akihabara is popular among shoppers and tourists for its cluster of shops selling electronic products as well as ''anime'' and pop culture items.