Man held for allegedly planning indiscriminate killing in Tokyo

Police have arrested a 53-year-old man in Toyama Prefecture for allegedly planning indiscriminate killing in Tokyo and preparing a knife for the potential rampage.

The suspect, Katsumi Mori, who is unemployed and from the prefecture’s city of Namerikawa, broadly admitted the allegations against him, according to the Toyama Prefectural Police.

He told the police, “I wanted to die as I’m struggling to make a living amid inflation, and I thought I would be shot to death or get a death sentence if I carry out indiscriminate killing in Tokyo,” investigative sources said.

Mori allegedly booked a bus for Tokyo and put a knife in his backpack Saturday, planning to kill many unspecified people in the capital.

The police started investigating after receiving information Saturday that a man in Toyama was plotting an attack. Mori emerged as a suspect within the day and was arrested at his home Sunday.

Police sources said Wednesday that Mori is believed to have had in mind the 2008 indiscriminate killing spree in Tokyo’s Akihabara district.

Tomohiro Kato, convicted of killing seven people during the rampage, was executed in 2022 at the age of 39.

Shuitsu Otomo, 50, Kato’s former colleague who has been engaging in activities to listen to people with homicidal thoughts since the Akihabara incident, said he received a message on X from a man believed to be Mori, hinting at his intention to commit an offense. Otomo reported the case to police.

According to Otomo, the man sent him a message on July 1 saying, “It might be good to die after causing an incident like the Akihabara one.”

The man also wrote, “I’m having trouble making ends meet so I want to cause an incident and die,” adding that he planned to get on an overnight bus on July 13 and arrive in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on the morning of July 14, with no plans to return.

Otomo asked whether he intended to commit a crime and the man replied that he would refrain from commenting.