Japan executes man for mass truck attack, its first execution this year

Japan carried out its first execution of 2022 on a man who was convicted of plowing a truck into a crowd in 2008 on Tuesday.

Tomohiro Kato killed seven people in the attack, which saw him driving a vehicle into a large crowd in Tokyo. He exited the vehicle after it came to a stop and began stabbing people at random.

“I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter who I’d kill,” Kato told police of his crimes. Akihabara is a district within Tokyo.

Kato reportedly documented his plan of attack in a series of online posts while he was making his way to Akihabar, lamenting about his job and social life.

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“This is a very painful case that led to extremely grave consequences and shocked society,” Japan’s Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said in a Tuesday statement.

Kato’s execution was Japan’s first in 2022. It last carried out a capital punishment sentence in December 2021, when a trio of men was hanged for various murder charges.

The three men were Yasutaka Fujishiro, who murdered seven of his family members in 2004, and Tomoaki Takanezawa and Mitsunori Onogawa, who were convicted of killing two bar employees in 2003.

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Prior to the 2021 executions, Japan had not carried out a capital punishment sentence since 2019.