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In article <t2fbp4$3j543$14@news.freedyn.de>
<governor.swill@gmail.com> wrote:

Japan has executed a man convicted of killing seven people in a
stabbing rampage in Tokyo’s popular Akihabara electronics
district in 2008.

Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said Tomohiro Kato had
undertaken “meticulous preparation” for the attack and had shown
a “strong intent” to kill.

“The death sentence in this case was finalised through
sufficient deliberation in court,” he told reporters.

“Based on this fact, I approved the execution after extremely
thorough scrutiny.”

The June 2008 attack, which also injured 10 people, began with
Kato driving a truck into a crowd. After stabbing several
people, the then 25-year-old was arrested at the scene, telling
police: “I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter
who I’d kill.”

Police said he documented his journey to Akihabara on internet
bulletin boards, typing messages on a mobile phone from behind
the wheel of the truck and complaining of his unstable job and
loneliness.

Japan’s top court confirmed Kato’s death sentence in 2015,
saying there was “no grounds for leniency”. The attack was the
country’s worst mass killing in seven years.

The son of a banker, Kato grew up in Aomori prefecture in
Japan’s north, where he graduated from a top high school. He
failed his university entrance exams and eventually trained as a
car mechanic, reports said.

Prosecutors said Kato’s self-confidence had plummeted after a
woman he had chatted with online abruptly stopped emailing him
after he sent her a photograph of himself.

His anger against the general public grew when his online
comments, including his plans for a killing spree, drew no
reaction, prosecutors said.

While awaiting trial, Kato wrote to a 56-year-old taxi driver
whom he injured in the stabbing spree, expressing his remorse.

The victims “were enjoying their lives, and they had dreams,
bright futures, warm families, lovers, friends and colleagues,”
Kato wrote according to a copy published in the Shukan Asahi
weekly.

Kato’s execution is the first in Japan this year and comes after
three prisoners were hanged in December 2021. Those were the
first executions in the country in two years.

The use of the death penalty in Japan is shrouded in secrecy.
Those on death row might only find out the sentence will be
carried out a few hours before or sometimes not at all, while
their families are usually only notified afterwards, according
to Amnesty International.

Amnesty, which is opposed to the death penalty in all cases,
says the general trend around the world remains towards the
abolition of capital punishment.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/26/japan-executes-man-over- 2008-stabbing-rampage-reports

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