AFP - Thursday, June 12
TOKYO (AFP) - - The distraught mother of the suspect behind a
stabbing rampage in Tokyo that left seven people dead collapsed to
the ground in grief as his father offered a heartfelt apology.
"We are terribly sorry for the people who lost their lives and
were injured by what our son did," said the 49-year-old father of
suspect Tomohiro Kato.
"No matter how many times we apologise, we cannot apologise
enough," the father added, bowing deeply and repeatedly before
television cameras in front of their house in the northern town of
Aomori late Tuesday.
"I still can't say what exactly I could do (for the victims) as
my mind is a mess."
Kato's mother, 53, wiped tears away with a handkerchief, then
collapsed on the ground.
To respect the parents' privacy, media agreed to pixelate their
faces and not give their first names.
The father, clad in a short-sleeved chequered shirt and black
trousers, has previously been identified as a banker.
Media reports have said their son, who in the course of a few
years went from studying at Aomori's top high school to working at
an auto parts factory, would beat his own mother as he failed to
live up to her expectations.
In Japan's deadliest crime in seven years, Kato drove a rented
two-tonne truck Sunday into Tokyo's crowded district of Akihabara,
which is the hub of Japan's comic-book and video-game
subculture.
He swerved the vehicle into pedestrians, jumped out and ran into
the crowds brandishing a survival knife in one hand and a smaller
knife in the other. He wounded 17 people before he was overpowered
by police.
Four of them died from stab wounds and three others were killed
by the truck.
Kato is in custody of prosecutors, who could press charges that
would lead to the death penalty.
The private Nippon Television network reported that Kato
tearfully told investigators he wished "somebody could have stopped
me" as he went on the stabbing spree.
Kato kept a chilling account of his journey to Akihabara by
posting online messages from his mobile telephone from behind the
wheel of his truck.
He earlier posted hundreds of messages revealing his anger and
loneliness as he failed to find friends or a girlfriend.
On the eve of the rampage, Kato wrote over the Internet "I had
been forced to play the good boy since I was little," according to
the tabloid Sports Nippon.
He said his parents would sometimes complete his homework for
him.
"I was perfect in my studies as I got prizes for what a parent
wrote or drew," he reportedly wrote.
"As they wanted to brag about me to other people, they would
finish everything up to make me look perfect."
The killings have shocked Japan, which has one of the world's
lowest crime rates.
The government on Wednesday called a meeting of eight cabinet
ministers to discuss whether to tighten controls on knives. Kato
was reportedly carrying five knives when he went on the
rampage.
"We have learned there are so many kinds of knives available,"
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said before convening
the meeting.
Japan strictly controls firearm possession.
