¡®The clicking sound of my cell phone echoes emptily in my room. . . . If only I had a girlfriend, I wouldn¡¯t have to live so miserably.¡¯
The thousands of messages posted online by Tomohiro Kato reveal the loneliness that haunted him in the days before he instigated the deadly attacks in Tokyo¡¯s Akihabara district on June 8. Although experts initially pointed to video games and low-wage jobs as being key factors behind his crime, details surrounding the incident suggest a bigger issue was at play. The incident, in many ways, highlights the extent to which the notion of ¡°seken¡± (the society, the people one deals with) continues to govern peoples¡¯ lives in Japan.
Kato¡¯s workplace woes are well-documented: A top-class student in elementary school and junior high, he had dreams of designing cars for Toyota, but ended up in a temporary job checking the paint-work on vehicles at a Toyota subsidiary in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture. Earning around ?220,000 a month ¡ª significantly less than the ?350,000 salary of regular employees ¡ª and struggling with debt, he was anxious about his employers¡¯ plans to lay off most of its temporary staff in June.
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