Mass stabbing near Tokyo lasted less than 20 seconds

Following a cabinet meeting held in the morning in the wake of the incident, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered increased police patrols in areas where children gather on their way to and from school.

Is this just in the area where this tragedy occurred? Is it for the entire country? If it's just the former, rather late here, if it's for the entire country, good on him and let's see it stay in place from now on!

It is time for Japanese to think abt their society. THe people over 40 years to 55 years old should start to think kindly. I am looking at two males 40 to 55 years old in my office. They have horrible mind & horrible hearts. They get things done behind my back & caused lots of misunderstandings in life to make others unhappy. Thank to god , they are taken care in the way of punishment by god.

20 seconds to ruin dozens of lives. Pain that will be felt for years to come. Despicable.

This is very sad .the prime minister of Japan should take very important measures for the safety of children and pupil of Japan.the young are dieing at early stage in Japan.my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victim.may their soul rest in peace .

In a country with this large of a population, multiplied with common bullying in school, work place, kouhai/senpai power struggles, overwork, other pressure etc. (not knowing if it contributed), these crazy people are going to explode sooner or later. It's super sad and might have been avoided. Now it depends if future incidents can be avoided by learning from this.

This isn't just an isolated incident. Education and lifestyle has to evolve in Japan. So much technology around. But the society is living in the past.

This is very sad .the prime minister of Japan should take very important measures for the safety of children 

Gotta understand how Japan runs, folks who run the government do not want to "waste" money on non-voting members, hence, up until rather recently, a smallish part of the budget being earmarked for child welfare issues and a huge portion towards the elderly voters that keep the LDP in power.

Over the years here there have been other mass stabbings, but none to my recollection that centered on children, and following the recent car accident where other children were hurt, Abe had to do something to make it appear that the government is on top of the issue.

What a senseless act. I cannot understand this person's actions. To attack innocent children is beyond belief. An eye for an eye justice is appropriate but unfortunately the murderer is already gone. RIP to the children and adults who lost their lives.

I really do not understand, why you still leave and work in Japan if the countries culture, traditions and daily life is soo bad ?

Personally I pray for the victims and families of this horrible incident.

R.I.P.

The bottom is falling out of society and the PM orders more police on the streets. The bourgeoisie only have a few moves in the play book.

Gone in 20 seconds! That's a record I'd prefer no to have beaten!

Yet another par for the course human tragedy in a society which prefers stigmatizing and sweeping under the carpet rather than fostering compassion and empathy. The deeper kinds of intimacy and mutual reliance which might have prevented this are precarious and rare. In this passionately social world, loneliness dogs the spirit. People are constantly "getting together", but they never really get there and whilst everyone is terrified of being alone and despite the universal assumption of wareware Nihonjin comradeship, in company they often remain as remote from each other as the stars.

Only a ten-minute walk from my apartment, I went to the site tonight and pay my respects. Cameramen and mourners were still standing around the mountain of flowers and canned drinks placed in tribute. Tried and failed to upload a pic here.

In retrospect to my comment yesterday, I think this tragedy could have occurred anywhere in the world. But it shocks us all the more in Japan because of the illusion of a 'technically developed - morally advanced' society we are constantly fed by the mass media.

And though the results of the deed were as bad as can be, I do not think the perpetrator should be judged from a moral perspective, but rather from a medical professional's perspective. Unlike so many of the corrupt elites we see in the news, he had nothing to gain from self-destruction but release from a long-lasting trauma that we can only begin to guess at.

If anything, this event shows the limits of educational-medical-local communities in catching the seriously ill before they erupt into destruction — even in such an 'advanced' and 'safe' society as Japan.

I was really shocked by the headline when it was first reported; my Japanese wife and 2 children are in Kawasaki and am thousands of miles away. Hopefully the government will put in place more stringent measures to prevent such erratic people from causing deaths and injuries to innocents. It is extremely painful.