Forum - View topicNEWS: 17 Hit or Stabbed, 7 Confirmed Dead in Tokyo's Akihabara
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DarkTenshi90
 Posts: 440 Location: Nebraska |
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Why would you even think of something like that? No, it's not cool that somebody wanted to go on a killing spree in Akihabara just because he felt like. Why you feel the need to think that way is sick and twisted, I didn't think anything like that when I heard this. You worry me. As for the shootings, I just found out about them tonight, and that's horrible that it happened, since you don't hear too much about people killing an abundance of people over in Japan, while in America and other places, it happens daily. It's sad that it happened, I honestly can only say that, and I hope that the families will do okay, despite losing loved ones. Its not fair for them to go through this, nor was it fair to the ones injured and to the ones killed. There was a shooting that took place not too far from where I live at a very crowded area and it devastated a lot of people. Hell, I'm friends with a girl who was very close to the shooter, and didn't know that he was going to go crazy and shoot down a ton of people. It was sad, and I found out right when I went home from school that something terrible had happened. I know the families must be horribly depressed right now, and I hope everything will eventually turn okay for them. |
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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Like you, I think that this was a murder committed by an individual who was tired of life and simply didn't care anymore. I should also slightly revise something I said earlier. Although I said that this man's actions were like a 'chaotic blaze of glory' I did not mean that his actions were motivated by a desire to achieve glory or anything like that. If a person hates the world so much that he is willing to commit suicide or throw his life away then that is sufficient reason to kill people randomly if that's what he decides to do. (From his own point of view, it is a logical and justified option. But from the point of view of others, it is not sufficient reason of course, and it's obviously against the law). When you look at how many people commit suicide each year I'm surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often. grgspunk and others, the intent of my post was not to start a war, it was to give an opposing viewpoint to the typical "how awful" politically-correct response. By the way, you guys posting one-liners probably shouldn't quote all the other posts, you are just going to unecessarily waste forum space and make a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be. Last edited by Porcupine on Sun Jun 08, 2008 11:22 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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There is no such thing as "sufficient reason to kill people randomly". |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Man, you have completely misinterpreted what I said. Did you read the post I linked or not? What I wanted to say was whether the attitude of bystanders had been partially influenced by the ancient caste system. Rti9 doesn't think so but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility so fast, for I've got a similar case: average Japanese people are afraid of English speakers, a phenomenon that you wouldn't witness in any other East Asian country, and I'd say there must be some cultural reasons behind it. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2235 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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This is getting off topic, but it's not cultural, it's institutional. Japanese people are afraid of English speaking people because English is a required course in the Japanese education system. But despite this hardly anyone ever learns how to actually SPEAK in english, so Japanese people when faced with the prospect of talking in english have flashbacks to their high school days and are embarrassed to speak because they feel like they SHOULD know how to talk in english but don't. Other asian countries have very different english education systems and so the people there have no internal expectation of english competency, and thus no reticence to approaching english speaking people. This actually is shown in Anime all the time: For example there's a scene in Tokyo Mew Mew where Ichigo is approached by a white woman and she starts blathering and eventually screams "this is a pen!" and runs away. "This is a pen" is the first sentence in english they teach you in middle school (or at least it used to be). |
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STELLALUNA42
Posts: 1 |
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Latest from NHK reports:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/society.html |
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TornadoTatsumaki
Posts: 145 Location: Mission Bend,Texas |
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In the land of the rising son where crime is very rare, anytime a mass murder occurs it shocks the country.
I would like to find out soon, if this young man (sei no otoko) had a motive. He probably didn't like that young drifter who shot and killed 9 people in a Nebraska mall last christmas and injured 20. My heart does go out to the families of the murdered victims and I'm at least glad(yokata) that only one female died. When crime occur in Japan, it horrifies them. After all Japan is different from us Americans who have hear about crime everyday, when it occurs it brings the citizens into disbelief just like it in 1984(or was it 1988?) when a young man named Miyazaki Tsutomo was arrested for kidnapping,raping and killing 8 young Japanese girls. It was discovered by detectives that Tsumoto was a sex offender and was addicted to porn and illicit child porn. In November 1989, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.( Source:Otaku No Video) In May 1995, just four months after the devestating earthquake in Kobe, Japan was gripped with terror when Tokyo became the unwitting target for terrorism after a buddist cult leader named Seizo Kasumi( I think that's his name) and his followers ignited mustard gas bombs in the city's subways killing 12 and sickening over 50 people. Japan is taboo when comes to crime, because it's a country with a low murder rate. after all what would be like if the rate of hit-and-runs suddenly skyrocketed in the U.S.? It would stun the nation. Last edited by TornadoTatsumaki on Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:00 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Bara_Megami
Posts: 106 |
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This has been haunting me all day, and with all the new updates of even more people dying, I feel even more sick. As an otaku - an obsessive fan of Japanese animation - Akihabara is the one place I wish to go in this world, and I can only imagine the scene - I am NOT watching that video, even though curiosity is beckoning me, I can't bear to watch it (I heard there was blood on the streets - make me shudder that such a place could be defiled like that). Imagine, otaku of all ages enjoying themselves, and then tragedy. Since we are on this website, it is only fair to assume we all have the same feeling of "that could have been me" no matter where we live right now, as Akihabara is the otaku mecha of the world, and we all have interest in it. I still want to go there more than anywhere, but now it is not the same. I hope this guy gets life.
I have only mildly gone over this thread, but as otaku, we should be grieving the loss of some of our own, not arguing about "this shouldn't have been on this site" or not. I hope that the families can find solace, and our global community can do the same. Porcupine: GTFO NOW plzthks. I have a feeling you're a teen who's all "I hate the world" angsty, and I really hope you grow up soon and realize you're totally wrong. |
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TornadoTatsumaki
Posts: 145 Location: Mission Bend,Texas |
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That's was I about to say, crime in Japan is rare but it does happen and when it does it has more of an impact on them then us americans used to mass murders like this which bears the footnotes of the "L.A. hit and run of 2004" and the 1991 Luby's massacre where before killing 22 rednecks in Killeen,TX, 45 year-old George Hennard drove his truck into the resterant cafeteria. I highly doubt this mass murder had anything to do with otaku. And I doubt it will affect the industry at all. After all, Miyazaki owned pornographic material and child porn not hentai, that was his obssession into his crimes. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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So is every other Asian country. Those who don't take English as their national language learn it as their primary (and in many cases, the only) foreign language.
Apart from former British colonies (Hong Kong, India subcontinent, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.), most English education of Asian countries are pretty much failures. I work in an academic institution where the proportions of foreign scholars and students are much higher than the rest of the vicinity. While most long-lasting eateries and snack bars are accustomed with foreign customers (I even helped one translating their menu into English), there are still newcomers who don't know much about the customer ecology here, such as a new branch of a convenience store chain. Even though, in one of my observation its rookie clerk (who don't appear to be a local) was still able to talk to a foreigner with his body language. Here, those who can't speak English can get nervous, embarrassed, agitated, or even a little bit panicked, their reactions are never on par with those of Japanese (see below). A friend of mine visited Japan a while ago and, while he could speak some basic day-to-day Japanese, he suddenly forgot the word for microwave oven, denshi range (電子レンジ; "range" pronounced as in English), when he bought some frozen food in a convenient store. He asked the clerk about "microwave oven" in English, and the clerk jumped backwards, with his back against the wall, as if he had just witnessed an extraterrestrial being on Earth. And similar incidents happen quite often.
I'm not sure what you were trying to express in this paragraph; if you meant that other Asian countries don't expect their students to excel in English then I'd say your information was quite misguided. Even if that was not what you meant, the results of their systems were clearly better. Sorry I got a bit carried away. If anyone would like to continue this topic with me please use PM instead. As for the tragedy yesterday: now I think it's probably more similar to a tsujigiri than a kirisute gomen. |
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Michael_Arnold
Posts: 11 |
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Ridiculous and completely irrelevant.
You can't be serious. Oh, I get it. You're not. Boy do I feel dumb. I don't know about the rest of the people here but I don't feel like this is a good topic for trolling.
Like I said in the other post, messages were posted on 2ch with threats about Akihabara more than a week before the attack. There's a lot of speculation in the Japanese blogosphere now about whether or not Kato himself sent them, and about what, if anything, he had against Akihabara in particular.
One of the NHK news reports said that there have been 67 (that's sixty-seven) of these "rare" torima attacks in Japan in the last decade. Apparently this was the worst.
You're not going to find any explanations for this tragedy if you keep clinging to stereotypes... |
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rti9
 Posts: 1241 |
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Some clear footage, interviews with bystanders, and dramatization of what happened from a Japanese TV program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShXW7GngaE0 |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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If you have some solid opinions, feel free to share them and I'd be happy to learn. For example, while I don't agree with everything samuelp wrote, he made a few valid points I really appreciate. If you aren't even willing to do that then stop your baseless ad hominem attack and get out.
I've been using this website daily for the past 4.5 years. Forum regulars know that it is very rare to see me writing something without being serious, and I don't need someone who just registered two weeks ago telling me how to write. |
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BleuVII
 Posts: 672 Location: Tokorozawa, Japan |
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Wow, I never thought anyone would accuse dormcat of trolling. The thing is, everything he said is valid. Bystander mentality in Japan is much, MUCH different in Japan than anywhere else in the world. In Eastern Europe, this man might have been mobbed by the bystanders. In America, there's a chance that someone would have jumped in to help stop the assailant. I cannot imagine either of those scenes happening in Japan. I imagine everyone stopping, exactly where they were, to watch the scene unfold, paralyzed by their inability to do something. "Shikataganai!" "It couldn't be helped!" No, Michael_Arnold, what dormcat says is not ridiculous and is completely relevant, as cultural attitudes are directly revealed in stressful situations such as this.
Au Contraire. Please learn the difference between "stereotype" and "generalization". Stereotypes are made with little knowledge; generalizations are made after research. And it is in these generalizations, which reveal culture-wide attitudes, that you will find an explanation of this crime, if there is one to be had. I feel the need to give an example. Take suicide. As most anime fans know, suicide used to be a form of regaining lost honor for your family. Those who took their own lives were held in high regard, as they bravely met their fate. At the same time in the West, suicide was seen as a coward's way out. Someone just wanted to run away. The corpses of the dead were beheaded, and superstition held that the suicidal person would receive certain punishments in the afterlife. Now, argue with me all you want, but when you see that Japan still has the highest suicide rate in the world, I will look back at cultural mindsets that have been carried by people over centuries. This is a generalization (after all, not every businessman who looses his livelihood jumps in front of a train), but it is still very real. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
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While you may have been registered here long enough you obviously haven't been active in the forums long enough my dear Katrak. This is hardly the first time Porcupine has posted something like this before. He's about one step away from being a sociopath himself. It seems though that my initial assumptions was right. The man simply lost it and "felt like doing it". This was not some planned attack against Otaku or anyone else. Just him going out and ruining people's day to say the least. |
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