Photo/Illutration A woman prays Dec. 22, 2021, for the victims of an arson attack that killed 25 people in Osaka’s Kita Ward five days earlier. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

There seems to be no end to indiscriminate assaults by people with a death wish of their own.

Statements given by perpetrators and the backgrounds of the crimes reveal the offenders’ social isolation and general despair with life.

A senior high school student went on a stabbing spree Jan. 15 and injured three people in front of the University of Tokyo campus where this year’s unified university entrance exams were being held.

It is troubling that such random attacks are spreading across generations.

Last October, passengers aboard a Keio Line train in Tokyo were assailed by a knife-wielding man. The suspect in his 20s had left his hometown three months before, having lost his job and gotten into trouble with friends over personal issues. He reportedly told police: “I intended to kill myself but couldn’t. I thought I’d be executed (for my crime) if I killed more than two people.”

In another random stabbing case aboard an Odakyu Line train in Tokyo last August, the suspect in his 30s reportedly deplored his lonely life of job-hopping. “What a miserable life I’m living,” he lamented.

Already one month has passed since 25 people were killed in a multi-tenant building in Osaka’s Kitashinchi district set by a 61-year-old arsonist who also died.

The man’s death was a huge blow to investigators trying to understand his motive. We can only hope they chase up every possible lead to get as close to the truth as possible.

The suspect was handed a four-year prison term 11 years ago for attempting to murder a family member. The presiding judge noted in the verdict that the man had contemplated suicide in his loneliness following his divorce and assumed he would be executed if he committed murder.

“If he can manage to establish personal relationships with people other than his family, his chances of rehabilitation are very good,” the verdict concluded.

But after he finished serving his time, the man appears to have remained a loner. A security camera at the scene of the crime captured him walking purposefully toward the flames. It seems likely he wanted others to join him in his embrace of death.

What should we discern from these crimes to prevent such tragedies from recurring?

This is somewhat old news, but it’s worth mentioning a report compiled by a research organ of the Justice Ministry in 2013 on studies concerning indiscriminate killing sprees.

According to the report, “dissatisfaction with one’s lot and present circumstances” topped the list of primary motive of 52 perpetrators of crimes of this type, accounting nearly 50 percent of the cases. Also, roughly half of them had tried to kill themselves before or after the crime.

There was a notable tendency among those individuals to have few or no personal relations, and be in dire straits due to joblessness or a lack of income. And from the standpoint of preventing such crimes, the report recommended that greater efforts be made to strengthen measures against suicide.

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, the annual number of suicides in Japan has risen for the first time in 11 years.

The government is taking steps to fight “loneliness and isolation.” Its main pillar for this involved the setting up of a strategic program last December to provide a 24/7 consultation service managed jointly by the public and private sectors.

This nation definitely needs to delve deeper into the causes and backgrounds of random attacks and implement measures to eliminate “unwanted isolation.”

But it is not just the government’s problem. Society as a whole should commit to understanding the “malady” to avert further tragedies.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 17

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