http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2008/ ... -zoku.html I'm really shocked. Not just at the magnitude of the crime or the nature of it, but the fact that you don't expect something like that to happen in Japan. You expect something like that to happen in the US. Westerners are the ones who usually act out on others, Easterners tend to act out on themselves.
Wow, that's crazy. Sad to hear what happened. There are just crazy people out there. Always have to be careful and watch out.
Images from TV via 2chan (graphic content): http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i85/A ... use/a4.jpg http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i85/A ... use/a3.jpg http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i85/A ... use/a5.jpg The number of dead is up to 7 now.
Coverage at CNN and BBC: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7442545.stm
C'mon...where did you read that? I would wager most of the publicized violent acts in Japan have nothing to do with the Yakuza.
the TV news where i'm from, and also on gaijinpot (an english teaching website). obv turned out to be bullshit though.
Well...there was that incident in Sasebo last winter where a guy killed a swimming instructor,her colleague and then himself with a shotgun. Not sure how he got access to one. well, rifles are permitted, strictly for hunting and target shooting though.
no links to verify this yet, but according to my coworker, the police were present for at least 20 minutes as the guy continued to stab people and failed to subdue him--during which time 3 people died. there had been threats on the internet, which led to increased police presence the day prior, but nothing happened so they went back to normal yesterday. they also couldn't get enough ambulances through the crowds. sounds like another case of mind-boggling police incompetence, like Lindsay Hawker...
There had actually been an increased police presence in Akiba going back a few weeks, stemming from a "street performer crackdown" they'd done.
That was for some pop singer showing her underwear to a crowd of people. This is a tragedy and hard to believe I was there almost a year ago. Over the past 9 months since we left there has been a string of mild robbery's too. Go to Nokino Broadway, Akiba doesn't have that much Kaiju anyways.
I think it was a buildup, and the idol singer was the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't know about kaiju specifically, but a very large Mandarake "complex" went up in Akiba a few weeks back, and my understanding is that it's vastly superior to the one in Nakano!
The perpetrator of the Akihabara stabbing was just put to death last week. Patrick Macias and Matt Alt have some interesting commentary about the case and events like it on the latest episode of their podcast: https://anchor.fm/PureTokyoScope
