(ANSA) – TOKYO, July 26 – A 39-year-old Japanese man was executed for the murder of seven people in June 2008 in the streets of Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronics district. Local media, including public broadcaster NHK, reported this today.
Tomohiro Kato had driven a truck into pedestrians in broad daylight, before getting out of the car and stabbing random people in the crowd with a double-edged sword, killing seven and wounding ten. An appeals court upheld his death sentence in September 2012, following an initial ruling in March 2011. Kato’s appeal was rejected by the Japanese Supreme Court in 2015, making the ruling final.
While a precarious worker at a factory manufacturing auto parts in a small town in central Japan, the man learned shortly before the massacre that his contract would expire in late June 2008.
Hosted by his employer, he told online that he was afraid of becoming homeless. During the audition, Cato also explained that he committed the massacre because of the criticism he received on the web.
After the massacre, the Japanese authorities banned the possession of double-edged daggers with blades longer than 5.5 cm.
It is the first application of the death penalty in Japan since last December, when three people convicted of murder were executed by hanging. Japan, along with the United States, is one of the last industrialized and democratic countries to still use the death penalty, a condemnation widely supported by Japanese public opinion. (Dealing).
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