1 dead, 10 injured after ex-Mazda temp hits 11 plant workers with car

What a nut job.

Afraid we are only go see more of this... secure jobs are going the way of the dinosaur. The Japanese have unfortunately adopted the American business model... It's all about the bottom line.

swift justice please...get rid of this piece of *%$# ASAP!

Japanese people are so polite, they always seem to call the police themselves after doing crimes

who were reported to be all male

Not a soushoku dansei among them?

It should read:

all of whom were reported to be male

Why was he driving a mazda if he hated them so much?

Nice catch, Nessie!

I wonder if he was fired "for cause"...

Zoom zoom zoom.

I hope this maniac is locked away forever.

Akihabara part-II, unfortunately both were workers of Japan's top Auto Industry.

One company I was contracted with had the same thing.... Except temp dude wasnt paid so he burned down the whole warehouse/office last year...(it was national news one year ago) One guy was killed. Japanese temp workers who get canned of feel shunned by coworkers go all the way. Hence the Akihabara guy- was canned, unpopular and they hid his uniform. My use of the word make inu (loser) has increased lately. Expect snapping psychos as Japan slides down the prominent pole and become more disconnected. Most of these types just end up in the pachinko parlor or topping themselves- but this fella may get the noose?

He probably killed a guy with a family in a similar situation as himself instead of taking his gripe to someone with culpability.

I guess the saying in Japan is that "He went auto plantal".

My prayers go out to the families of all involved.

It's a good thing that mofo had no firearm. In hands of a lunatic like that...

according to mazda president, this guy RESIGNED after 8 days of working there.. they never fired him. something's wrong with this guy..

who do you believe fishy?

would be very unusual for a company to fire someone after just a week or so even during this bad economy. IF he was fired like he says, he probably had some problems, but then, in that case, mazda would be telling the public that the guy had problems.. i dont know the truth of course, but i kind of believe mazda's story at this point. curious to see updates.

Guess he taught them a lesson! Harrrr!

I would tend to believe the guy who did NOT ram 11 people with his car in this case if I had to pick on common sense...

who were reported to be all male

Does this need to be in the article? Does it really matter if some of the victims were male or female? Or did he swerve around any females in his path to spare them? hmmmmm.......

mayhem-

Guess he taught them a lesson! Harrrr!

this isn't funny at all. watch your language.

Japan makes international news again with another disgruntled worker going on a killing spree. "Shoganai!"

According to a family member, Hiroshi Hamada, the man who was killed, had a one-year-old daughter. Very sad, and I hope this guy goes away for a long time. I also hope Mazda will take care of the family of the deceased.

I surprises me that this sort of thing does not happen more in pressure-cooker Japan.

He fled the scene after hitting the workers, but called police who found him at a nearby mountain in the town of Fuchu in Hiroshima Prefecture and arrested him

They "found" him? I think its more likely they picked him where he told them he was. They "found" no one. That sort of thing takes the J-cops years.

The family members of the Mazda worker who was killed, and the other 10 workers who were injured should all have a shot at Hikiji. They could say, "You're not so tough without your car," and proceed to thrash him good.

I am surprised this doesn't happen every day in Japan... considering how temps are being treated in that country...

Somebody agree?

I hope the Japanese government will help Temp workers. This kind of violence will increase if temp workers are treated like trash. Which they usually are !!!!

Laws are changing in Japan... in the near future, companies won't be able to hold on to temp workers for too long without hiring them as permanent employees (sorry, not sure of the exact length of time).

As for this psycho, I hope he's not too crazy that he doesn't realize at some point what he's done to an innocent man's life and his family.

Laws are changing in Japan... in the near future, companies won't be able to hold on to temp workers for too long without hiring them as permanent employees (sorry, not sure of the exact length of time).

That'll probably make things worse, since companies will just fire workers after 3 years instead of hiring them permanently...

Quato, true that companies may just fire workers after a certain period of time, but that doesn't make things worse than now as you say because when you fire an employee, you have to pay them severance, and at least during the time they are employed, they will also get benefits that temp workers do not. Permanent employees cost companies money whether they are being hired or fired.

Disillusioned said:

"Japan makes international news again with another disgruntled worker going on a killing spree. "Shoganai!"

International news? Nice try to make things worse (as usual), dude!!

For your information, people go on a killing spree in other countries WITHOUT even being disgruntled by anything.

Disillusioned, keep up the negativism!

roomtemperature - International news? Nice try to make things worse (as usual), dude!!

Pardon??? - This is where I first read of this attack, as has most of the rest of the world - http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/7440909/man-slams-car-into-mazda-workers/

Make things worse? Worse than what? Worse than a disgruntled worker driving his car into a dozen people and killing one? Sorry, but I can't see any silver lining in this cloud.

Hikiji’s motive could be ‘‘exhibitionistic,’’ Fukushima said, as a means of letting the nation know about his unhappiness.

He could have done the same thing by posting an angry web blog and threw himself in front of a train.

I just saw Mr. Kurosawa (Mazda auditor) say there was no trouble with the worker. I have spoken with Mr. Kurosawa - he wrote a memo which was leaked to me in which he called me a very dangerous person for Mazda - why? Because he is fully aware of the fraud Mazda pulled on me. This is a seriously sick company that has been abusing people for years! The authorities are running away from us. I was at the police three weeks ago. They told me that theft of my entire contract fees over seven years by Mazda HR is not a criminal matter. How many times this sort of stuff happens in Hiroshima regarding Mazda abuse of people... this man may have opened the flood gate. Mazda is one catastrophe of an embarrassment waiting to happen. My heart goes out to all the victims of Mazda.

A guy is a temp worker who worked for them all of three weeks, yet gets angry enough to want to kill random workers? Sounds like his "personal issues" go way beyond the norm.

(and from the "mostly irrelevant to the story" department):

Ummm from March 25th to April 14th HAS to be more than 8 working days. Even if Golden Week was in that span (not sure if it was) then you're still talking at least 10 working days.

The seishain bullshit has to be eliminated. It only create more lazy and unproductive employees. No wonder this guy bear the grudge. He's probably a productive worker for all we know but just was not taken seriously by Mazda. Being a temp worker is real shit with all the snobbish seishain looking down on you.

suspended sentence....

suspended sentence................

In Japan, the discriminatory dual system of employment is common at major companies because regular workers, hired under a lifetime employment system, can’t be fired. Japan needs to change idea of closer equal pay for equal work. Many Japanese feel is that regular workers do little work but have big attitudes and get big money. Especially during the difficult economic climate, it is a huge social problem with resentment.

If the temp was hired through a temp agency, the hiring company is usually paying TWICE the salary of the temp worker: the other half goes to the temp agency. For the comapny to pay temps the same as the full-time employees, each temp would cost the company the equivilent of two regular employees.

Fadamor at 04:30 AM JST - 23rd June. if the temp was hired through a temp agency, the hiring company is usually paying TWICE the salary of the temp worker:

At Hiroshima based Mazda, contract workers such as Hikiji are hired on a six-month basis, but have contracts directly with Mazda and not with referral companies, which the automaker stopped using last year. Source: Mazda Motor Corp. spokesman Kotaro Minagawa.

Thing is, if they are going to change the temp worker laws, they need to get rid of the laws that basically state that companies can't fire people. If I had a company I would hire temps so that I could get rid of the useless ones. If you hire them FT, you can't get rid of them. Lose/lose situation for the company and workers.

Japan needs to seriously do something about their mentally ill.

'Hikiji’s motive could be ‘‘exhibitionistic,’’ Fukushima said, as a means of letting the nation know about his unhappiness.' Spot on assessment. This is why you can't stop these people through laws or policy. Although you can certainly stop them by not reporting them, that's not going to happen because it's newsworthy. We just have to accept that there are people without morals or fear of consequences.

My friend is a doctor who worked for a hospital in Japan. She has to work as a seishain, receiving about 230,000Y a month. She has been there for 6 years, working early, leaving late, toiling like a slave. Then, her contract was not renewed for this year because they have to raise her salary as mandated by law and needs to have more benefits so they decided to get a newly graudated doctor to fill her place. And because the replacement is a newcomer, he is not entitled to a higher salary and benefit. Is Japan moving in the right direction? In a world of capitalism, everyone is disposable. Its all for the money and sometimes, some people just snap and start killing people. Of course, in the place where my friend works, they have full time doctors who don't know how to diagnose, spend their time doing nothing, or spend thier time engaging in various speaking engagements and leave the work for the newcomers or seishain. So resentment is on the rise on the working place and the gov't won't lift a hand.

Was the Mazda Familia he was driving his or a company car? Or is this coincidence...

What part about "temporary worker" that he did not understand?

noirgaijin: what part of contract does Mazda not understand? I would be extremely surprised if Mazda doesn't see another incident like this before the year is up. The current union boss told me directly that I had no right to a lawyer. If I approached a lawyer I would be hurt. The current president who sat glumly throughout Mr. Kurosawa's comments to the press threatened the designated legal advisor to foreign residents in Hiroshima on October 19, 2007. He gloated about how much money Mazda contributed to things in Hiroshima. Asked to comment on whether my claims were legitimate or not he simply said, "Stay away from matters that don't concern you!" I can imagine what is going through their heads at the moment. This guy's problem paled in comparison to the stuff Mazda did to me and a whole lot of other voiceless individuals. Put it to you this way, there's a place in hell reserved only for Mazda HR, legal department, PR, Union, and lawyer.