Photo/Illutration The chaotic scene in Tokyo’s Akihabara district on June 8, 2008, after Tomohiro Kato rammed a rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians and went on a stabbing spree (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Japan carried out its first execution of the year July 26 when it hanged a man convicted of killing seven people in a random stabbing spree that started after he deliberately rammed a rented truck into a crowd of people in Tokyo’s Akihabara district in 2008.

Tomohiro Kato, 39, was put to death at the Tokyo Detention House, Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa told a news conference hours later.

Three pedestrians were killed and two injured when Kato, a former temporary dispatch worker, steered his truck into a crowded pedestrian zone in the area that celebrates popular anime and manga culture and is regarded as a mecca for electronic goods.

He then got out of the vehicle and started stabbing people at random, killing four and injuring eight.

The incident occurred around 12:30 p.m. on June 8, 2008.

The seven victims were aged 19 to 74 and had gone to the area for shopping and other activities.

Kato was arrested on the spot by police officers who rushed to the scene.

The Tokyo District Court in March 2011 handed down the death sentence that prosecutors had sought, declaring that Kato “bears maximum responsibility for killing and injuring many pedestrians with whom he had no personal acquaintance.”

The Tokyo High Court upheld the sentence in September 2012, and it was finalized by the Supreme Court in February 2015.

The Supreme Court stated in the ruling that the killings were clearly premeditated.

It said Kato “acted after making careful preparations, with a strong murderous intent and in an atrocious manner.”

It was the first execution since three men were hanged last December over their involvement in two crimes.

It was the second time Furukawa had signed death warrants since he assumed the position of justice minister.

Furukawa told a news conference July 26 that the killings “left an extremely serious impact and shocked the community by taking seven people’s lives in an atrocious way.”

He said that on July 22 he signed the death warrant and issued the order to proceed with the execution “based on deliberate consideration.”

According to the ministry, 106 convicts whose sentences have been finalized are currently on death row at detention facilities around Japan.

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