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Lots of new details emerged since Sunday about the Tomohiro Kato Akihabara killings. Early on, the media turned their focus to the fact that he seemed to be a fan of doujinshi, military equipment, cars, and Miss Wide Open. Police found evidence of all of the above in his apartment, and of course, the media began to spin their usual web of otaku negativity.
Like I expected, Tomohiro expected there to be a lot of people, and that was the reason he choose to attack Akihabara. He told police that he parked a rented truck near the crime scene and waited. He admits,
I traveled to Akihabara from Shizuoka to kill people. Anybody was OK. I was tired of life. I knew that the streets would be crowded after the pedestrian paradise. I wanted to cause an incident in Akihabara as I had visited there many times.
He also revealed that it was indeed him that posted the message at 11:45am on a mobile messaging board saying “I have arrived in Akihabara”. At 12:30pm he posted “It’s about time.” He then drove the truck into the crowd. He admits erasing the messages before the incident because he didn’t want to cause trouble to those around me. That makes you think others knew about the incident and did nothing to stop it.
3 of the victims were killed by the truck, and 4 were stabbed to death. Tomohiro told investigators that when he arrived at work, he noticed that his work clothes were missing. He said that he thought he had been fired. This may have helped spark his rage.
Sources:
On a positve note, a news story here in Tokyo today did address the fact that he had been forced by his parents to undertake various studies outside of school, particularly at cram school. Of course, many parents do this to their kids here, and it’s a positive thing that the news made a point of how societal pressures can play a part in causing mental illness and may be a catalyst for such behavior.
I can’t believe they’re blaming otakus haha Chances are he was bullied like all the others.