On June 8, 2008, Tomohiro Kato drove a large rental truck into a crowd of people shopping in the Akihaba District of Tokyo, Japan. He then exited the vehicle and began stabbing onlookers. He managed to stab at least 12 people until police arrived, who chased him into a narrow alley where he was cornered. After a police officer pointed a gun at him, he immediately dropped his knife and surrendered (funny how that works).
In the aftermath, 3 people were killed by the truck while two were seriously injured. Of the 12 who were stabbed, four died from their wounds.
In the analysis of the attack, revelations that Kato suffered from poor self-image, low self-esteem, and lacked social support networks became the primary suspected motivations for the attack. Police also discovered that he had posted messages online that foreshadowed the attack, but nobody noticed or reported the posts in time to prevent the attack.
Japan has extremely strict gun control laws and has one of the lowest rates of gun ownership in the developed world.
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