A man convicted of stabbing seven people to death in Tokyo in 2008 has been executed. 39-year-old Tomohiro Kato was hanged on Tuesday for a frenzied attack in June 2008. Kato drove his two-tonne truck into a crowd of pedestrians in the Akihabara electronics district in Tokyo. He got out of his truck and fatally stabbed seven people. Kato was arrested at the scene.
Kato, who was 25 when he committed the crime said he had been angered after a woman he had chatted with abruptly stopped emailing him after he sent her a photograph of himself. Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said Kato had undertaken “meticulous preparation” for the attack and had shown a “strong intent” to kill.
In a remorse letter to a 56-year-old taxi driver he injured he wrote, “were enjoying their lives, and they had dreams, bright futures, warm families, lovers, friends and colleagues,” The Guardian reported. Kato was sentenced to death in 2011. According to the police, Kato had been writing about his loneliness and unstable job on an internet bulletin. Japan continues to resist international pressure to abolish the death penalty. The death penalty is usually given to people who are involved in multiple murders.
