A typical commercial building in Tokyo’s world-famous electronics shopping district and anime mecca, Akihabara.
(dpa) A convicted gunman who killed seven people in Tokyo’s world-famous electronics shopping district and anime mecca, Akihabara, in 2008 has been executed in Japan. The Japanese media reported unanimously on Tuesday, citing the government. The then 25-year-old Japanese drove a truck into a crowd in June 2008 at lunchtime in the district, which is also popular with foreign tourists, killing three people. He then jumped out of his vehicle and randomly stabbed passers-by. Four other people were killed. He was “fed up with everything,” the young man was quoted as saying by the media after his arrest.
Japan, the third largest economy in the world, is one of the few industrialized countries that retains the death penalty. Human rights activists have long denounced the handling of executions and prison conditions in Japan. Foreign governments also criticize the fact that the death row inmates are not informed of the time of their execution as particularly cruel. Those sentenced to death often live in solitary confinement for years. When the execution warrant finally arrives from the Justice Department, most of them only have a few hours to live.
In an international comparison, Japan is considered a country with relatively low levels of violent crime. But crimes have repeatedly made headlines in recent years. In a 2016 shooting spree at a home for the disabled in Tokyo’s neighboring prefecture of Kanagawa, a young former home worker stabbed 19 defenseless people to death. A Japanese man killed 34 people in an arson attack on a famous animation film studio in Kyoto. On July 8 of this year, a Japanese man assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the city of Nara. He cited hatred of a religious sect to which Abe was connected as a motive.