Update: See also Part 2

When all the dust had settled and the knife rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district last Sunday, which took the lives of seven people and left at least 17 injured, had come to a close, many were left wondering what it all really meant. Some pointed the finger at video games, while others pushed for stronger net monitoring. But while news media commentators tried to ease anxiety [ja] that there might be deeper social forces at play in murderer Tomohiro Kato's motives, bloggers offered less simplistic interpretations.



Video taken just after the killing

One of the common themes that many bloggers were writing about are the conditions of so-called temp workers (“haken rōdōsha”, or in Japanese 派遣労働者). Between 2000 and 2007, the number of temp workers in Japan, hired on short-term contracts at lower wages than full-time employees and with very little job security, increased by 4.5 million. Kato worked at an automobile factory of Kanto Auto Works (関東自動車) under Toyota, contracted through temp agency Nikken Sogyo Co. [ja] (日研総業).

At the webpage of allneetnippon, an NGO tackling the problems of Japan's working poor, director Yamamoto Shigeru (山本繁) gives an indication of what temp work is like:

派遣のような期限の決められた働き方では、安定的な人間関係はなかなか生まれない。3ヶ月や半年、長くても2年、3年で職場を転々としていく。しかもそれが自分だけではないから、孤立化に一層拍車がかかっていく……。

The kind of fixed-period work that you get in temp employment hardly ever results in stable relationships. You switch workplaces every 3 months or one year, or at most every two or three years. And this is not just you [it is other people as well], so isolation will further increase….

昨日の秋葉原の事件についてネットでいろいろ調べたりして、孤独が絶望を生んでいるように僕には思える。静岡のど田舎で自動車部品工場で働きながら、派遣会社が用意した単身者用住居に住み込みで働く生活は、どれほど寂しく、苦しいものだろうか。

I had a look around at various places on the net about the incident yesterday in Akihabara,and my feeling [from what I found] is that isolation is giving birth to a despair. Working at an auto parts factory in a rural place like Shizuoka, living in a single-room residence prepared by the temp agency, is there any more lonely, any more painful a life than this?

In an article at magazine9, Amamiya Karin (雨宮処凜) describes meeting someone who had been working at a Toyota factory through the same temp agency:

昨年末、名古屋である男性に会った。犯人と同じ日研総業から愛知県のトヨタ車体の工場に派遣されていた２４歳の男性は、昨年９月１８日、「１０月９日をもって雇い止め」と通告された。幸い彼は労組に加入していたので団体交渉をし、「一ヵ月の生活保障」「(それまで住んでいた)寮の確保」、「就業先の紹介」を勝ち取った。が、日研総業はその一ヵ月の間、彼に一件の仕事も紹介せず、一ヵ月が経つと賃金を打ち切り、会社の借り上げアパートである寮から追い出した。その結果、彼は路頭に迷い、名古屋のホームレス一時保護所に収容された。

At the end of last year, I met a guy from Nagoya. Just like the offender [Tomohiro Kato], he had been dispatched by Nikken Sogyo to a Toyota car frame factory in Aichi prefecture, and received a notice on September 18th that: “On October 10th, your employment will be terminated.” Luckily he had joined the labor union so he entered into collective bargaining, and he was able to win “one month of life security”, “guarantee [that he could stay in] the dorm (where he had been living up until then)”, and “referral(s) for future employment”. But in that period of one month, Nikken Sogyo [the temp agency] did not refer him to a single job, and when the one month was over his wages stopped and he was thrown out of his dorm which he had been renting from the company. As a result, he ended up on the streets, and within a short time he was admitted into a Nagoya homeless shelter.

Blogger qushanxin brings up the issue of discrimination against so-called “NEETs” and “freeters” in Japanese society:

貧困をめぐる社会運動は生存に軸足を置いているが、やはりそれと同時に差別を問題にしなければならない。というのは、もし「フリーター」と呼ばれる人々に、彼らが求める水準の生活保護や社会保障が充足されたとしても、安定した正社員層の、「なんで努力もしていない連中に俺たちの税金が・・・」というルサンチマンがむしろ募っていくだけだからである（これは「日本社会に溶け込む努力もしていない外国人なんぞに・・・」という人種差別の理屈と紙一重である）。何度も書いてきたことだが、マックやコンビニの店員が「まもとな社会人」として認知されるべきだという規範的な問題が、生存の問題と同時に語られなければならない。両者は密接な因果関係にあり、一方だけを切り離して論じると非常に危険であると考える。今の「生存」を掲げる運動には、「小難しい規範的なことなど生存が満たされてから考えればよいこと」という雰囲気を感じるが、これは全く間違っていると言っておきたい。

The social movement surrounding poverty centers itself on [the issue] of survival, but actually it must at the same time also question the problem of discrimination. I say this because, suppose for example that the demands for standard livelihood protection and social security of the people called “freeters” were satisfied, this would just cause the resentment that “our tax money is going to those guys who don't even work hard…” to build up among regular full-time employees with stable work (there is a fine line between this idea and the racist theory of “foreigners who do not even try to blend into Japanese society…”). I've written this many times before, but the problem of survival has to be discussed together with the normative problem that employees of McDonald's and convenience stores must be recognized as “true members of society” [shakaijin]. Both problems are closely correlated, and I think it is thus extremely dangerous to separate them and deal with them on their own. One can sense in the movement right now for “survival” an atmosphere of “we can think about the troublesome normative issues once survival is satisfied”, but what I want to say is that this [thinking] is totally mistaken.

今回の秋葉原の事件がこの問題に関係しているのかどうかわからないが、もしそうだと仮定としたとして、犯罪心理学者とかいう肩書きの人が言っているような「自己顕示欲」「不満の吐け口」という無内容な解釈ではなく、私はもっとスレートに、秋葉原に歩いているような「普通の市民」（実際そうではないとしても）を憎悪していた可能性のほうが高いと考えるべきである。つまり、「フリーター」や「ニート」と呼ばれるような人々にとっては、「普通の市民」こそが日々侮蔑的・差別的な視線を自分たちに向ける当事者であるがゆえに彼らを攻撃する、と考えるほうが素直に理解できるように思われるのである。

I am not sure if this relates to the incident in Akihabara, but if we take the above to be true, then rather than interpretations without any substance by people with titles like criminal psychologist about “people who crave the limelight” and “release of dissatisfaction”, one should instead consider the possibility to be stronger that he had hatred for the “average citizen” like those walking around Akihabara (even if in actual fact this was not so). In other words, for people like those referred to as “freeters” and “NEETs”, it is exactly the “average citizen” who every day targets their gaze of contempt and discrimination at them, and this is why they attack them; it would seem easier to come to an honest understanding [of this issue] by thinking about it in this way.

At a thread on 2channel titled “Kato is our friend” (加藤はおれたちの仲間), differing views were expressed. Some disagreed with the title of the thread (comment #11):

11：名無しさん＠毎日が日曜日：2008/06/08(日) 23:06:03 ID:OzKp/XrY

こんなテロ事件を起こしても世直しにはならない。逆効果だ。

こういう事件が起こっていちばん喜んでいるのはむしろ勝ち組。

勝ち組の仕掛けたワープアネガティブキャンペーンの罠に

加藤はまんまと自分からかかりにいった裏切り者の大馬鹿者。

This kind of terror will not improve the world. [It has the] opposite effect.

The ones who are the most pleased with this incident are those from the winning side.

Kato is a complete idiot, a traitor who thoroughly fell for the trap set up by the winning side,

a negative campaign against the working poor.

Comment number 16 disagreed with criticisms of the temp employment system:

16 ：名無しさん＠毎日が日曜日：2008/06/09(月) 00:01:22 ID:m9O5agz5

秋葉原無差別殺人事件で派遣制度を叩くスレが多いけど、それを批判するのは違うんじゃね？

派遣制度がなければ仕事にも就けずホームレスになってた奴なんて数えきれないほど出てくるだろ。

結局本人の甘え、スキルの問題なわけだし、仕事を選ぶから派遣をやってるわけだしな。

都市部の派遣社員より給与が低く、賞与もなく、待遇も悪い名ばかり正社員だって数十万人はいる。

派遣が悪いわけでも、社会が悪いわけでも無い。 全て個人の責任だよ

There are a lot of threads on the Akihabara indiscriminate murder incident attacking the temporary employment system, but seems to me that they're criticizing the wrong thing.

Countless examples have come out of people who would be homeless if there was no temporary employment system.

In the end he depended too much on the kindness of others, it was a problem of skill, and he was working at a temp job because he was picky about his work.

There are hundreds of thousands of nominally full-time workers whose wages are lower than temp employees in urban areas, who get no bonuses and who are treated badly.

Temp agencies are not bad, nor is society. It's all the individual's responsibility.

Many however expressed sympathy with Kato, like this one (number 18):

18 ：かばわ(2チャンのドン)：2008/06/09(月) 12:58:38 ID:+aeuC22C

悪いけどオレは加藤のおかげで自信が付いた

今なら加藤までは行かないけどすごいことができると思う

加藤ありがとう 勇気を与えてくれて 感謝してる

It's bad to say, but it is thanks to Kato that I've gained confidence.

I wouldn't go as far as to do what he did, but I think I could do something amazing now.

Thank you Kato – You have given me confidence – I am grateful

Blogger naoya_fujita at the deconstruKction of right, though, doesn't buy the arguments supporting Kato on 2channel threads and in blogs:

まず、彼が若年者雇用の鬱屈の表現者であるならば、なぜ犠牲者は同じく若年者を狙ったのか。資本主義の祝祭都市で消費を享受しているから敵だと思ったのか。本来狙うべき敵はエスタブリッシュ層や経済エリートなどではないか。もちろん、通り魔なんてまったく肯定はしないが、もし仮にやるとしても、本当に最後の手段として暴力を使うとしても、被害を最小限にして効果を最大限にするべきで、本当にやるんだったら経団連を爆破とか国会に突入とかするべきなのだ。なぜしなかったのか。近づけないからである。

First of all, if he is a representative of the gloom of young people about employment, then why did he choose the same young people as his victims? Did he think of them as his enemies because they were enjoying consumption in the festival city of capitalism? The enemies he should be aiming at are the establishment class, or the economic elites, no? Of course, I absolutely do not agree with something as terrible as a mass stabbing, but just for argument's sake suppose that you were going to do something, and suppose that as a measure of last resort you were going to use violence, you should minimize the damage while maximizing the effects, and if you were going to really do it you should do something like blow up the Keidanren or break into the National Diet. Why didn't he do that? It's because he can't go near them.

エスタブリッシュメント層は、公的、私的にセキュリティを上げている。ゲーテッドシティにしたり、警備員をつけたり、監視カメラをつけたり、オートロックにしたりである。私のような貧乏人はオートロックには住めない。これはどういうことか。つまり、通り魔をやっても、殺されるのは貧乏人だけということになるのだ。セキュリティを金で買う余裕のない人間が、最も殺されることになる。ということは、エスタブリッシュメント層にしてみたら、貧困をケアすることによるリスクの低下（暴動をしなくさせたり左翼革命を起こさせなくする）ということに金を出すより、自分たち自身のセキュリティを上げて、貧困な人たちは貧困な世界で殺しあえばいい、という風に、分断するつもりだと思われるからだ。これがセキュリティ社会だ。だから、「あんまり貧困に追い詰めてるとここまで鬱屈して爆発するんだぞ！」という恫喝も無効なのだ。「だったらセキュリティ上げて君たちを排除する」となる。すると本来の敵ではなく味方同士で殺しあうことになる。今回の通り魔など、その地獄絵図だ。

The establishment class suggests security in a public and private setting. Forming gated communities, installing security guards, switching to auto-locking [doors]. Poor people like me can't live in [places] with autolocks. So what is this about? What I am saying is that even though you carry out a massacre, the ones who are killed end up being poor people. People without any extra money to pay for security end up being the ones that are killed the most. Which is to say, the reason is that if you think about it from the view of the establishment class, it is better to point to people's personal security than it is to spend money reducing the risks involved in caring for the poor (by putting down rebellions and preventing left-wing revolutions from happening); if poor people commit murders among the world of the poor then so much the better [from the point of view of the establishment class] — seems to me that is the way this situation should be analyzed. That's the security society. So threats of “don't drive us to poverty or we will become so miserable that we will explode like this!” have no effect. [You get a response like]: “If that's the way it is, then we'll raise security and get rid of you guys.” And when that happens, you end up murdering not the true enemy, but your fellow companion. What you get is a picture of hell, like the mass stabbing that happened this time.

The location of the killing was the discussion topic of many blog posts. Blogger paraselene at END_OF_SCAN was almost in Akihabara when the killing happened:

たまたま昨日のビリフリでアキバのラーメンの話をしたので、美味しいラーメン屋を探して食べようという気になったのであって、ホントわずかな違いであそこに居合わせたかもしれないと思うとぞっとします。

Just by chance there was some talk last night about ramen in Akiba, so I was thinking that I'd go find a good ramen place and have a bite to eat. I shiver when I think that if things had been just a little bit different I might have been there when it happened.

交差点の惨状を見たとき、とてもその場に居続けることができなかった。無政府状態近かったし、またどこに危険があるかわからなかったし。

When I saw the disastrous scene at the intersection, I absolutely couldn't stay there. It was close to anarchy, and I wasn't sure if there was still any danger.

In a post that was bookmarked by many Hatena users [ja], blogger klov asks why Akihabara has become a place for “spectacles”:

従来は種々のオタクと呼ばれる人々がコミュニケーションを志向して集う空間であったのが、近年のメディアの露出を通して秋葉原という都市に共通の記号を見出し、スペクタクル志向空間になっている。よくオタクが「俺たちの知っている秋葉原は死んだ…！」と嘆くのは、こうしたコミュニケーション志向空間から、メディアを通じて喚起されるスペクタクル志向空間に変わったことを指すのではないか。

Up until now, it had the atmosphere of a place where a variety of so-called otaku gathered with the intention of communicating, but through recent media exposure common symbols in the city called Akihabara have been uncovered, and its atmosphere has become oriented toward spectacle. It would seem that the mourning of otaku that “the Akihabara we knew has died…!” points to the transformation from a communication-oriented space to a space that, roused through the media, is oriented toward spectacle.

For much much more about this story, see a fantastic round-up by north2015 at N.S.S.BranchOffice [ja]. See also the last messages (explained in this Mainichi article) posted by Kato in Japanese, reproduced by blogger coldcup [ja]. For more background on Toyota's changing business strategy (related to the use of temp workers), see this article from 2007.

Thanks to Taku Nakajima for link suggestions.