Japan’s netizens express glee, relief over execution of Akihabara mass murderer

Name: Japan executes mass killer 14 years after Tokyo stabbing spree
Uploaded: 2022-07-27T09:51:54.000Z
Duration: 2 min 3 s
Description: Japan executes mass killer 14 years after Tokyo stabbing spree

Even as Japan’s netizens lament the 14 years it took for justice to be done, most approve of the execution of a man who killed seven people in 2008

Amnesty International called the hanging ‘a callous attack on the right to life’ and urged Japan to introduce an immediate moratorium on executions

Reading Time:3 minutes

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On July 26, the Japanese Justice Ministry announced Tomohiro Kato’s execution for killing seven people and injuring 10 others by ramming a truck into holidaymaker pedestrians and stabbing at Akihabara on June 8, 2008. The execution came seven years and five months after Kato’s death sentence. File photo: EPA-EFE

Julian Ryallin Tokyo

Published: 5:51pm, 27 Jul 2022Updated: 6:18pm, 27 Jul 2022

Few Japanese netizens are shedding tears over the execution of a man convicted of stabbing seven people to death in 2008, even as Japan comes under stinging condemnation from Amnesty International, with only sporadic voices online protesting the death penalty.

Tomohito Kato was hanged at a Tokyo detention centre on Tuesday morning, more than 14 years after he drove a rented five-tonne truck into a crowd of pedestrians in the Akihabara district of Tokyo.

Three people died immediately and two were injured, with Kato stepping out of the vehicle to stab four more people to death and injure another eight.

Eye-witnesses say the death toll would have been higher if Kato had not been quickly confronted and overpowered by police.

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Japan executes mass killer 14 years after Tokyo stabbing spree

The hanging came a day after Japan joined the US and other nations in condemning the executions of four political prisoners in Myanmar as “reprehensible acts of violence”.