Experts have their say on Akihabara rampage

A random slaughter such as the one at Akihabara on June 8 inevitably raises the question “Why?” There is no easy answer. Violent crime seems to have transcended an earlier phase in which killer and victim would be linked by enmity or jealousy or a robber’s craving to appropriate another’s property, at the cost of murder if necessary.
Now, more often than not, there is no motive, only blind rage on the one hand and a flawed society on the other. The seven people who died at Akihabara were not responsible for the social flaws that oppressed the suspect, nor does the suspect seem to have thought them to be.
“Why do killers kill?” asks Shukan Asahi (June 27). Nine intellectuals offer short essays by way of response. We’ll summarize as many as we have space for.
“There is no possible justification for the cowardly crime Tomohiro Kato is alleged to have committed,” writes journalist Mika Tsutsumi. “Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot of young people all over Japan in a similar state of inconceivable despair.”
Kato, 25, was a temp factory worker who felt he was being provoked into quitting. “This was not necessarily a delusion on his part,” writes Tsutsumi. “That sort of bullying is rampant at workplaces like that.”
Moreover, she points out, for temporary workers housed in company dormitories, losing a job is tantamount to losing the roof over your head. With no fixed address, it’s hard to find another job; hard also to collect welfare benefits.
“People who have been robbed of their self-respect no longer take themselves seriously, and cease to regard other people as human,” Tsutsumi concludes. “I can’t help but think there could be a lot of potential Katos out there.”
To nonfiction writer Tsukasa Yoshida, random murders of this type are a form of suicide. The suspect in the March attack on passers-by in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, said as much: “I figured if I killed a lot of people I’d get capital punishment.”
Yoshida sees in this a reflection of the “new freedom” touted by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. What it amounts to, says Yoshida, is “the pursuit of self-interest and to hell with everyone else.” A corollary is “the inability to feel anyone’s pain but one’s own.”
“From ancient times on,” he writes, “Japan was a society of strong community ties based on equality and mutual assistance. The ‘new freedom,’ together with the deregulation unfolding under the name ‘globalism,’ dissolves the social safety net and shatters the Japanese ethos.”
Consider the “amok syndrome,” suggests biologist Kiyohiko Ikeda. “It can show up in any society,” he says, “but the manner in which it appears reveals the nature of the society.”
The word he chooses to characterize Japanese society is “constricted.”
Take smoking, for example. Now, to buy cigarettes from a vending machine, you need a special “taspo” card to prove you’re old enough. “In the old days,” writes Ikeda, “everyone in high school smoked. A boy of 18 and a girl of 16 can get married—and yet they can’t smoke until they’re 20.”
It’s this hyper-control of small desires—“substitute desires,” in Ikeda’s terminology—that causes them to expand under pressure into destructive urges.
Then there’s the Internet—where, in stark contrast to the stifling controls elsewhere, absolute freedom reigns. But freedom exerts pressures of its own.
“Kato had posted his intentions to kill on the Net, which, had he not carried them out, could have exposed him to a barrage of taunting remarks: ‘No guts,’ and so on. That may have been one reason why, for him, there was no going back.”
Japan’s unwillingness to tolerate life’s minor vices, Ikeda believes, is “weakening the nation’s immune system” and unwittingly creating major vices—of monstrous proportions.

14 Comments

8iamhappy8 at 10:03 AM JST - 21st June

"for temporary workers housed in company dormitories, losing a job is tantamount to losing the roof over your head."

Does it seem to anyone else that in Japan, there is such a huge stigma to living with your parents?
jackkerouac at 10:23 AM JST - 21st June

A huge stigma?? Most single people do live with their parents...
superesonator at 10:46 AM JST - 21st June

“I figured if I killed a lot of people I’d get capital punishment.” I can think of a quicker suicide method where you only have to kill one person.

This article is total BS.

The problem is people too weak and immoral to make simple choices. And how did they get that way?
kirakira25 at 03:00 PM JST - 21st June

Is everybody in this country too scared to state the obvious? Unless you "fit the mould" - the mould being the social center of your school, fabulous university and bright future as a besuited lab-rat somewhere like Sony, you are a huge disappointment, a mis-fit, an outcast and a let-down to yourself, your parents and your country. What`s that going to do to a human being?

This guys own Mother thought he was weird and didnt want to eat dinner with him. What is that going to do to someone over time? He was a big disappointment to his overly strict father and then they had the nerve to go on TV and apologise for their sons behaviour! Im sorry, I know I am no expert, but I cant help but wonder why he was never given the emotional tools to cope with lifes setbacks.

And the scary thing is there a thousands upon thousands of other Kato`s out there with the same issues simmering under the surface.
isthistheend at 08:07 PM JST - 21st June

I agree. Its very much a crisis. In 30 years of living here, nowadays J-is quite alarming. Yet, life on this archepelago with earth quakes, typhoons, rainy seasons, limited land space and high cost of living is nothing if not a constant challenge to survive. I reflect that a large part of my waking hours are spent considering how to avoid bumping into some one, making trouble, or being attacked by someone else walking in my direction. Then we see how people are absolutely going nuts for some kind of diversion from today's stressful situation, giving birth to the plethora of internet capable cell phone use and now the portable video games. So to a large degree, one's daily existance here is built upon the premise of surviving the crisis. Taking out your frustrations by striking out at innocent people is well, against the law, which in most cases acts to deter all but a few totally desparate and sick people. So what to do to prevent the latter? Its more than can be covered/controlled or alleviated by our writings. But chip away at the problem we must.
Coligny at 10:07 PM JST - 21st June

Living with the family is part of the fun in this country. I insisted against my wife so we go to live with her parents; nicest people i've ever seen and since I work from home it give me people to see during the day. Allow to be in bigger house, do some carpooling, use less energy and water and much less stress in case someone is sick or injured.
8iamhappy8 at 11:46 PM JST - 21st June

"Im sorry, I know I am no expert, but I cant help but wonder why he was never given the emotional tools to cope with lifes setbacks."

Try, because he is a guy. Ever wonder how daughters are given so much attention and affection? Sometimes it's hard to be a guy. The only advantage we have is that our clocks are not ticking. For everything else, it's tough being a guy.
6wings at 12:02 AM JST - 22nd June

Hm, when I saw this story on the news it certainly made me ask myself, "Why would someone do that?" I haven't come to any satisfying conclusions. A lot of people are saying that he did what he did because of the way Japan is but I disagree. Anyone anywhere would feel desperate if they felt that they had limited prospects and no one who cared for them. Anyway, there isn't much point to blaming this or that.

I guess, most of all, this tragedy reminds me that I have to do what I can to support the people I care about within my own little sphere of influence.
johnshiomi at 09:50 AM JST - 22nd June

I believe that all human behavior can be explained. Kato's behavior is a symptom of a deep and prevalent problem we seem to be having in our society today. Instead of looking at Kato as a terrible, crazy,cowardly guy we need to try to understand why he became the way he is and more importantly what we can do to prevent such a thing. I think we need to start by educating kids at a young age of just being more self aware of their feelings. Also, to teach people that change is possible... bad things don't just continue forever. It's time to take responsibility for our lives and stop blaming people. When we blame people for our feelings and actions we feel we have no control over our lives and just give up.
mareo2 at 01:40 PM JST - 22nd June

He just failed to find his place in the society. With the counseling of family, friends or specialists, maybe he tried to keep looking. Failing to a civilian life, maybe he can tried a diferent path like the military or religious life, recovering Self-esteem or peace for his tortured soul. Or even going abroad looking for new horizonts. He just give uped at the age of 25. Some live in a blue tent in the park, others leech their families and/or friends or the gov, some turn to a crime life and a few commit suicide. But he blamed the society for his own failures or bad luck and attacked the society like a cornered wonded beast, by killing inocents and crushing the peace of the people. He was lucky that he got the same decent chances of a good life than millions of japanese and he got lot better chances than billions of people around the world. If society failed to him in something, is just in detect the problem and giving counseling. If we still want to find someone or something to blame, blame the weak economy, that put more pressure for everyone in the work place.
kirakira25 at 10:28 AM JST - 23rd June

Try, because he is a guy. Ever wonder how daughters are given so much attention and affection? Sometimes it's hard to be a guy. The only advantage we have is that our clocks are not ticking. For everything else, it's tough being a guy.

Its not about affection, its about being valued for who you are and what you do. That should never, can never be gender-specific.
RMGTTF at 11:18 AM JST - 23rd June

Japan’s unwillingness to tolerate life’s minor vices, Ikeda believes, is “weakening the nation’s immune system” and unwittingly creating major vices—of monstrous proportions.

Unwillingness? Pfff. I see lot's of teenagers drunk, smoking and fondling on the streets on weekends. Man freely watch all sorts of porn (from some manga to pics in their mobiles) while on the train and so on.

It's rather being to passive to react to any action of somebody that is not you.

The problem of these guys like Kato has to be addressed but with people here not daring to look further than their own nose. It's gonna be hell difficult.
VS at 01:37 PM JST - 26th June

The parents are most at fault here. They should also get some kind of punishment for being so abusive to their son.

These parents will never realize what they did though. They'll never take responsibility for what they did. A lot fo jap parents are like that, they want to feel pride through their kids and blabber around what their academic scores are, what college they go to, what company they work at. These are loser parents that have nothing better going on in their life so they're so desperate to "shine" in the world because they never did.
Xeno23 at 09:48 AM JST - 4th July

Did I miss something, or is it nowhere in these posts and article expressed the distinct possibility that the guy had a frickin screw loose. You know, there are quite a lot of folks running around with less than a full deck of cards in their inventory, or who have a sub-warranty gimble holding their sense together. Sometimes, they just go off. That's no excuse for bad parenting, or social safety nets with huge holes in them, but c'mon, in life there's gonna be a certain amount of stuff that's just plain broke.