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Mass Murder in Japan

G9M&P15

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TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A man ran over a group of people with his truck and then stabbed 18, killing at least 7, in a video game district of downtown Tokyo Sunday afternoon, according to a Tokyo fire official.
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Rescue workers from the Tokyo Fire Department gather to help the injured in Tokyo's Akihabara district.
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The dead included five men -- three aged 19, 47 and 74 -- and a woman, according to a Tokyo metropolitan police officer. The gender of the seventh person was not immediately known. Eleven others were wounded, police said, with two critically injured.
"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, told The Associated Press.
"He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything," Akaogi added.
Authorities said the man drove a rented truck into a crowd, jumped from the vehicle and then began stabbing the people he had knocked down, AP reported.
Japanese media reported that the suspect told investigators he was 25 years old.
early 20 ambulances rushed to the scene, with television footage showing rescue workers tending to victims in the street.
The Akihabara district, where the attack took place, specializes in electronic gadgets and video games and is popular with people interested in comic books and distinctive fashion.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/08/japan.stabbing.spree/index.html
 

longwatch

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So much for the argument that if there were no guns there would be no mass murders.
 

Takezo

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Handguns and rifles are completely illegal in Japan. You may own a "sporting clays" shotgun, but you must have a lisence to possess and transport it. Hunting rifles (and the calibers are limited) are only liscenced to "game warden" and others (some farmers) who live in the country. Again they must be lisenced.

When I was in Japan in October I stopped off at the only gun-store I know of in Tokyo. A shot-gun store in Shinjuku (area of the largest train station in the world). The owner dropped a load when I gave him an NRA hat and some shooting magazines. He dropped another load when I showed him a photo of my shizzle collection.

The only people who possess firearms are the Army, Navy, Japanese Marines, the Police... and the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia). There are several hundred thousand Yakuza gang members in Japan. The two major outfits are: the Yamaguchi Gumi (real name) and the Inigawa Kai. Inagawa controls most of Tokyo. Yamaguchi is a southern (Osaka based gang). The gangs operate openly. They maintain office buildings as would IBM and Bank Of America--they even have their gang logo displayed on the front. The gangs are mostly into, drugs, gambling, extortion (and every resturant and bar in Japan pays juice) and prostitution and weapon's smuggling. Despite there being whole areas in Tokyo (like a section of Shinjuku called "Kabuki-Cho" the size of about 1/2 square mile) that are completely controlled by the gangs--street violence is practically non-existant. The cops there rarely come out of thier "Kobans" (police boxes). The Yakuza and the police openly cooperate with each other to maintain street peace. Criminal activity takes place out of sight.

So if you are the victim of a Yakuza extortion, or crime--the police will do little or nothing to help you. You can wave a butter knife, and use harsh language, but that's about it.

This all sounds a bit like the situtation going on down in Mexico, doesn't it?

This guy who killed those people in Akihabara (I used to live two stops away), just snapped his nut. Japan, and the rigors of life and work there, is a very hard place to live.
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Toymaker

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Corruption.

Sounds familiar.

It's no wonder the government wants to keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens.
 

Toad

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SouthernBoy wrote:
Killed them with an assault truck.
It is only an assault truck if it had more than 3 forward gears. They are keeping that quiet because the media outlets fear the overbearing NTA (National Truck Association):D
 

like_the_roman

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Takezo wrote:
The only people who possess firearms are the Army, Navy, Japanese Marines, the Police... and the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia).  There are several hundred thousand Yakuza gang members in Japan.  The two major outfits are: the Yamaguchi Gumi (real name) and the Inigawa Kai.  Inagawa controls most of Tokyo. Yamaguchi is a southern (Osaka based gang).   The gangs operate openly.  They maintain office buildings as would IBM and Bank Of America--they even have their gang logo displayed on the front.  The gangs are mostly into, drugs, gambling, extortion (and every resturant and bar in Japan pays juice) and prostitution and weapon's smuggling.  Despite there being whole areas in Tokyo (like a section of Shinjuku called "Kabuki-Cho" the size of about 1/2 square mile) that are completely controlled by the gangs--street violence is practically non-existant.  The cops there rarely come out of thier "Kobans" (police boxes).  The Yakuza and the police openly cooperate with each other to maintain street peace.  Criminal activity takes place out of sight.

Didn't the Yamaguchi-gumi help distribute food and other supplies during the 1995 earthquakes?

Try getting MS-13 or the Crips to do that when California burns every summer.
 

Takezo

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Yes the Yamaguchi did help in the quake---then is was back to business.
 

400HP

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Hmm. I have been to Japan 28 times. You never hear about stuff like that, but then again, you never hear about all the homeless people there either. But you you go to any city park, that is all you see.
 

deepdiver

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Sad but bound to happen eventually. People maintain the misperception that mass killings are due to certain weapons rather than due to location density giving a target rich environment and the warped mind of the perpatrator.
 

Legba

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The "video game district" obviously explains it.

-ljp
 
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