Akihabara Rampage and Its Behind
I guess most of you have already heard of Akihabara rampage, which took place 8th June. The suspect in the deadly Akihabara street rampage was now formally charged with murder.
Tomohiro Kato, 25, rammed the 2t truck he was driving into pedestrians on the street, and then jumped out of the truck and stabbed 12 people within 30 seconds. Those stabbed included who were caring for the victims.
7 of the victims died; 3 by the impact of the truck, 4 from stab wounds. The victims included 3 university students. 10 other were injured. Kato, blood spattered on his face and clothes was arrested on the spot.
It took place in the middle of the day on Sunday in the main shopping district limited to pedestrians, the street was crowded.
Kato had held rage against society and had vowed to get revenge by unleashing his fury on the streets of Akihabara, a Mecca of electronic goods stores and a center of Japan’s comic book and anime culture. Before the killing, he had posted despondent Internet messages on an Internet bulletin board warning he planned to kill people.
Police spokesmen said that Kato has at times broken down in tears during questioning, and has confessed to the crimes, but has been unapologetic. Kato told his motive as that he had taken refugee on the Internet from the hatred of the reality of life, but he was ignored also there, and thought he would commit something of "big scale."
The impact of the killing is so huge that people furiously criticize the culprit as “crazy” or “selfish.” However, the personality of the culprit reflects elements of society, other than his disturbed personality, and gives us some food for thought. What is behind the tragidy?
1. Unstable work
Kato was a factory worker in a countryside of Shizuoka, but he lost the job 3 days before the killing. He was working in a car manufacturing factory, a subsidiary factory of TOYOTA, checking dirt on the surface of vehicle painting. It was very tiring job, indeed. Starting at 6:30 am, workers were allowed only 10 minutes of rest for use bathroom and 45 minutes for lunch. In addition to regular 8 hour labor, they were often asked to work hours of extra. If he failed to spot even a small dust, the supervisor would immediately come to reprimand. Tough and antagonizing, the job was on temporary basis. He had once applied to work at TOYOTA as more stable seasonal worker, but was rejected.
