Toyama Police Arrest Unemployed Man Who Planned Tokyo Knife Attack Due to Financial Hardship

Police in Toyama Prefecture arrested 53-year-old Katsumi Mori on July 15 for allegedly planning an indiscriminate killing in Tokyo and preparing a knife for the attack. Mori, who is unemployed and lives in Namerikawa city, broadly admitted the allegations, the Toyama Prefectural Police said.

Mori told investigators he wanted to die because he was struggling to make a living amid inflation and believed he would be shot or receive a death sentence if he carried out the attack in Tokyo, investigative sources said.

He booked a bus for Tokyo and placed a knife in his backpack on July 11, planning to kill many unspecified people in the capital. Police began investigating after receiving information on July 11 that a man in Toyama Prefecture was plotting an attack. Mori emerged as a suspect the same day and was arrested at his home on July 12.

Police sources said Mori is believed to have had in mind the 2008 indiscriminate killing spree in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, in which Tomohiro Kato killed seven people before his execution in 2022. Shuitsu Otomo, 50, a former colleague of Kato who monitors people with homicidal thoughts, received a message on X on July 1 from a man believed to be Mori.

The message stated it might be good to die after causing an incident like the Akihabara one and that the sender was having trouble making ends meet and wanted to cause an incident and die.

The sender added plans to take an overnight bus on July 13 and arrive in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on July 14 with no plans to return. Otomo reported the message to police after the man declined to confirm whether he intended to commit a crime.