Dozens Of Blog Warnings Ahead Of Japan Knife Attacks

A man arrested for killing seven people in a knife rampage on a crowded Tokyo shopping street posted dozens of warning messages on the Internet in the hours leading up to the attack, Japanese media reported on Monday.

Japanese police arrested a 25-year-old blood-spattered man at the scene for driving a truck into a crowd of Sunday shoppers in Akihabara, Tokyo's biggest electronics shopping district, and then walking down the street stabbing people at random.

Passers by prayed and dropped flowers on Monday at the scene of the attack, as a bewildered Japan tried to make sense of the latest in a series of random acts of violence.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Kalima]

The real problem in Japan is that mental health care lags behind western countries.
This guy had already been violent at home, walked around his neighbourhood
carrying a survival knife and was generally withdrawn and odd. The family however
were too embarrassed and maybe too afraid to seek help, if they had, maybe all
those people would still be alive. Mental health issues in Japan were until quite
recently, a thing to feel ashamed about and few people would talk openly about
their problems. Things have to change or we will just see this escalate in the future.
My heart goes out to the victims, their families and friends.

[AdamX]

So now I expect all the anti-gun folks to call for knives becomming illegal.

[GrainOSand]

No, just idiocy.

[NoMercy]

It's the opposite. I expect NRA types to argue to outlaw automobiles and knives, since they are not guaranteed by the 2nd amendment anyway.

[dairyair]

Tokyo needs to outlaw knives and trucks. Both were involved with the incident.

[Soundofthunder]

I see the logic in that. Guns and knives are basically the same thing except knives have many rational non-lethal uses like cutting a steak, chopping vegetables, whittling, spreading butter, operating on a patient and so on, while guns have only three uses: killing animals (hunting), target practice (to eventually kill something), and killing people.

Just for future reference, never bring knife-shaped illogic to a gun-shaped logic fight.

SOT

[MNCurler]

You forgot the fourth use- self defense. If some idiot was coming at me with a knife with intent to kill me I surely would want a handgun to stop him.

[pfc1369]

If he'd been armed with a good ole American automatic, no doubt dozens would have been slaughtered.

[citizenofmars]

I gotta know- was it a Ginsu?

[Yuma]

Akihabara not Ginzu

[Katboy]

"AFP via Yahoo! News incorrectly points out: "On a different site, an anonymous posting on May 27 was entitled 'A disaster in Akihabara' and warned that an incident would take place on June 5."
... the "disaster" that the thread is referring to? Ninja Gaiden 2 " which went on sale on June 5th in Akihabara.
The thread is apparently nothing more than a fanboy flamewar. That Ninja Gaiden 2 Xbox 360/PS3 fanboy fight appeared on television news here as well (above). Yahoo! News Japan has pulled its original story, but at time of posting Yahoo! News was still running that AFP story"

http://kotaku.com/5014476/details-surface-about-akihabara-killer-ninja-gaiden-2-confusion

[Tommygun264]

So which was it that made him do it - video games? Marilyn Manson music? Is the right wing in Japan now claiming that this tragedy could have been avoided if everyone had been armed with knives?

[MNCurler]

On the contrary- the Left wing in Japan is now calling for the banning of all knives.

[DocSarvis]

Perhaps they should ban rental trucks as well.

Coming soon: the sharpened chopstick rampage and subsequent assault chopstick ban.

[mabinog]

He flipped out just like the nutjobs we have in the States. The difference being that Japan does not have a gun culture like we do, so he used a vehicle and knife instead of hand guns or a semi-auto rifle.

[robXdion]

You don't need a gun to defend against this. With a CROWD of people. 2-3 men could have tackled the idiot from behind or while he was attacking other victims. In America, if he ran a truck thru a crowd of people on a busy city street and stuck around, he would have been pulled from the car and stomped like a cigarette butt. The Japanese are very docile people until they really get ticked off. The American fuse is much shorter.

[elbzee]

Ummm, highly unlikely rob. See the recent video of that old man hit by a car? See all the folks jumping to help him? And see all the people running after the driver? Give me a break rob.

[kellygrrrl]

I still don't understand how he was able to get to so many people.
I'm still kind of confused by what went down here.

[KarateKid]

Japan, and Tokyo in particular, is densely populated. During the day, you should see the mass of humanity, especially in a popular local and tourist area like Akihabara. This is where people go for electronics gadgetry and CDs, DVDs, cameras, etc. The article did not say how many were killed by the truck, as opposed to the knife attack, but I'd bet most, if not all, were killed by the truck.

Look what that 89 year old man did with his vehicle in Santa Monica. In the wrong hands, vehicles are lethal weapons.

Deranged people are everywhere, even in Japan. Remember, these are descendants of people who once were convinced in the divinity of an emperor and agreed to get into planes and dive bomb American ships as human torpedos. Japan invented the suicide bomber concept.

[Kalima]

Two people were killed instantly by the truck, the rest were stabbed after
his truck collided with a taxi and he got out. In a replay provided by witnesses,
he moved so quickly, that nobody knew what was happening before it was
too late to stop him. Japanese are well known for not sensing danger and
have been near the top of the list of victims of crime, when they travel abroad.
This apparent lack of fear, leads to many more victims unfortunately.

[Yuma]

But He did not take his life.
Also, Japanese police did not shoot him.
In Japan.... Death penalty is............ by hanging!

[Tommygun264]

If cars were outlawed only outlaws would have cars.