Tokyo’s Akihabara district, a popular spot for Japanese subcultures, on Friday marked the 10th anniversary of a stabbing rampage that killed seven and inju
Tokyo’s Akihabara district, a popular spot for Japanese subcultures, on Friday marked the 10th anniversary of a stabbing rampage that killed seven and injured 10 others.
A stand for flower offerings was set up near the intersection where Tomohiro Kato, a 35-year-old former temporary worker now on death row, mowed down pedestrians in a vehicle-free zone with a truck and randomly stabbed passers-by with a knife on June 8,2008.
The incident shocked Japan and put the problem of young people’s dissatisfaction with unstable employment back in the spotlight.
It also led to the suspension of Akihabara’s custom of creating pedestrian-only shopping zones by closing its main street, Chuo-dori, to traffic every week on Sundays.
A 60-year-old man who works nearby offered a bottle of tea and said, “I feel so pained when I think of the victims and their families. The incident should not be forgotten even though 10 years have passed.
