Killer Who Triggered Change in Japan Knife Law Is Hanged

Twenty minutes before committing a 2008 mass murder that shocked Japan, Tomohiro Kato posted a warning online that read, "It's time." Japan apparently decided the same thing for him. The 39-year-old has been hanged in the Tokyo Detention Centre, some eight years after he received a death sentence in connection with the crime, Japan's Justice Minister announced Tuesday. It was the first execution carried out in Japan this year. Kato, then 25, drove a rented truck into pedestrians in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district, killing three. He then stabbed pedestrians, four of whom died. The AFP reports 10 people were injured.

The BBC has background on Kato, who hailed from a wealthy family and attended a top high school but didn't pass his university entrance exams and had a spotty employment history. Upon being caught, he confessed and reportedly said he was enraged by online bullying; prosecutors said he was especially affected by a woman who stopped emailing him after he sent her a photo of himself. "I came to Akihabara to kill people," Kato reportedly said. "It didn't matter who I'd kill." In the wake of the attack, Japan banned possession of double-edged knives whose blades measured more than about 2.2 inches. Japan has more than 100 people on death row; the US has about 2,500. (More execution stories.)