Akihabara

Something bright and cheerful would have gone down better today.

This event must bring about some awareness of the problems in Japanese society. The international news has proclaimed the offender to be a crazed comic and video game fan. One of the quotes from an international news site was, "He deserves the death penalty." Is this really the answer? The death penalty clearly does nothing to stop this kind of crime from crazies. He deserves help and the victims deserved to have his threats taken seriously. One of the international sites claims he mad a post on May 26th about and attack on June 8th in Akihabara. When will there be a serious attempt at policing and monitoring these websites for these suicidal and homicidal maniacs? If his threats were taken seriously yesterday may have just been another sane day in Akihabara.

I think that fool will be let off easy with death penalty. Payback is a bitch and he needs to learn it the hard way. Make him a slave for the rest of his life or something. He doesn't deserve any treatment or attention. He knew what he was doing. He planned it all along. Government can and should do nothing otherwise our rights will be violated.

sleep early and take it easy for those very stress out people.

nisegaijin:

Turn him into an organ donor and take out his stuff while he is still alive. No pain killers

...and that kind of punishment would make you any better than him, would it? I don't think so.

This cannot be simplified into some crazed comic book fan. This is a symptom of very deep societal disfunctions that must be urgently addressed. If not this will happen again and again.

Japan has a growing number of alienated, hopeless people who are detached from society around them and no longer capable of empathy or compassion. We see it in the increasing incidents of conflicts on trains, raging suicide rate, frequency of strange murders and attacks and more. In many cases the culprits talk as if what they did had no moral or ethnical context or consequence. And in the end they dehumanize their victims into objects for whatever self gratification they were after.

We need a rational approach to reverse this problem. An execution will do nothing to achieve that and may even contribute to more dehumanization in this society.

tkoind2, since the end of the miracle economy there has been an escalation in random stabbing sprees and violent family murder. the LDP need to stop squandering money and put more back into the community but that will never happen. the fact is that they just do not care about the population. well, if Fukuda or another prominent politician becomes a victim of these crimes either directly or other, then we may see the slow, painful dinosaur LDP start to address these issues.

That isn't her shoulder...

I know wottock,

thats why the guys are looking. perhaps a few crocodile tears and they can get the other "ahem" shoulder

007 / romulus - Please, guys, no snide comments here, OK? This is a tragedy.

Sarge,

Yes Drill Sargent!

And now the news reports are gonna start on how he was a loner.... co-workers will start airing their dirty laundry... classmates will talk about how he was such a strange kid... EVERYBODY will have noticed there was something "not quite right" about him... and NOBODY will have done anything. But, even if you wanted to, what could you do?

tkoind2.... wanna lay odds that a majority of people right now are hankering for that execution? 19, 19, 21.. how many other ages are represented amongst the dead? Your right that a rational approach is needed, but how would a rational approach RIGHT NOW help bring any closure to the families of the current victims?

Now, for the record, I am against the death penalty. I am all for life imprisonment, hard labor, no chance of parole and ZERO REHABILITIATION. Punishment only.

But how often do you see a life sentence in Japan?

Loki,

Usually its the other way around, isn't it? "Such a polite little boy, a bit quiet perhaps, but you would never have thought..."

But how often do you see a life sentence in Japan?

Well, I've been here nine years so far :o

The death penalty does nothing to deter these events. The only thing it does is, give the families of the victims some satisfaction, which is a false mindset anyway. If someone kills your brother and you kill him how does it make it justice. All of these fiends want to die, so why give them what they want?

Japan has a growing number of alienated, hopeless people who are detached from society around them and no longer capable of empathy or compassion..

I'm afraid this is becoming true now from the crib on up, or was it always this way? The problem is deeper than we foreigners can express. And the Japanese don't want to hear our opinions about their hikikomi or worse problems. So it just becomes survival of the fittest, plain and simple....or you can go do some volunteer work elsewhere. Oh I know. Let's get Bobby Valentine to become PM, that would fix everything!

I don't have any problem with stringing this guy up. Hang 'im high.

"All of these fiends want to die,"

Then why didn't the just commit suicide instead of murdering others?

"so why give them what they want?"

By executing them, we make sure they'll never murder anyone ever again, plus we don't have to pay to feed, cloth and house them for the rest of their miserable lives. Still, to kill a man is, in the words of Clint Eastwood, "a hell of a thing. Take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have."

Yo, check out the guy in the back bustin out the cell phone to "capture the moment" ! I dunno, maybe he's on to something. I mean how often does one get the opportunity to actually see blood stained streets where 7 innocent people where slaughtered by some crazed loony.

...and that kind of punishment would make you any better than him, would it? I don't think so

This has nothing to do with me. It's about making that subhuman piece of sh!t suffer.

Something bright and cheerful would have gone down better today. I agree with this sentiment entirely.

I'm surprised only westurn has commented on the guy in the background taking pictures of people hurting. It just keeps getting weirder...

why not criticise the guy who took the picture you are looking at? only ok for journalists?

A terrible tragedy. If the death penalty helps the family even slightly get over their grief then the death penalty is what he should receive in my opinion.

As far as the guy with the cell phone yes that was one of the first things I noticed about this photo too. camera's are everyplace today though so I am not surprised. The photo is probably on Flickr, Google , My Space or another website someplace.

What was nice to see from such a horrible tragedy is Japanese people showing empathy with the whole incident and the victims. Posters here are always talking about how Japanese people are becoming desensitized when it comes to incidents like this and other type tragedies. I was glad to see that si not the case.

"And he was such a polite and quiet guy" said his neighbors.

tkoind2:

Japan has a growing number of alienated, hopeless people who are detached from society around them and no longer capable of empathy or compassion.

It's not just Japan. America is also cultivating an entire generation that is increasingly self-centered, with kids obsessing over their hand-held gaming device instead of conversing with their family and developing healthy social skills. I doubt Europe is much different.

This event is a tragedy is so many ways. Perhaps if Japan's society was more open to psychiatry and talk-therapy? This man obviously realized something was wrong, but the choice he made only made things worse. If he hated life before, wait until he sees the inside of a Japanese prison.

Hopefully he will be put away for a very, very long time. Killing him won't make anything better - and the families of the victims are never the people to ask, because they can't look at the case objectively. I think he must be mentally ill, and thus requires treatment

Speaking of pictures, anyone else out there catch the phot's from todays yomiuri ? Front page has what appears to be a brown haired gaijin applying pressure to one of the victims. Anyone know who he is ? Also, check out the 'Bachan standing in the middle of the street all google eyed ! Blank exressionless face... speaks volumes ! Then there are all the people taking photos of the three victims as they die in the streets ! Question ! What exactly are you going to do with those photos ? I mean how sick is that ! Some of these people have telephoto lenses ! WTF for ? Is this something you really feel the need to photograph ? To show who ? When ? "Hey grams come on over here, I got some great photos of them people that got knifed in Akihabara !" "Yeh, just look at all that blood !" "Hey anyone for some ocha and sembei ?" Sick folks ! Really sick !!!

westurn wrote

there are all the people taking photos of the three victims as they die in the streets ! ... Is this something you really feel the need to photograph ?...sick folks ! Really sick !!!

You never know what purpose an image might come to serve. Perhaps they document the valiant efforts of rescuers. Perhaps they could be useful in court. Do you suppose that photograhy of war atrocities is equally sick?

WR, lets not speculate too much on war atrocities... I don't think we have that situation here. Lets just say that rubber neckers and looky loos bustin' out the digitals to photo victims bleeding to death in the streets... instead of maybe helping... is sick and wrong ! Lets hope you are not such an individual... you never know when you might find yourself on the other end of the lens with some guy saying... "hey I'm making a document" !

look, a picture like that could help with this:

TOKYO — Police on Tuesday said one of the male victims who survived Sunday’s Akihabara stabbing spree was found to be infected with hepatitis B. Police are asking anyone who helped give the victims emergency aid or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to visit their doctor for an immediate medical check.

The Manseibashi police station in Akihabara is asking anyone who gave emergency aid to the victims to call them at 03- 3257-0110).

instead of maybe helping... is sick and wrong !

Many of those amateur photos made it into the mainstream news. Only so many people can help a victim. Do you know how to stabilize someone and provide first responder medical care?

Lets hope you are not such an individual... you never know when you might find yourself on the other end of the lens...

No question: if I was there I'd be taking pictures.

a picture says a 1000 words