Japan on Tuesday executed a man convicted of mass murder in Tokyo in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2011.

Local media reported that Tokyo executed Tomohiro Kato, who was convicted of killing 7 people in a mass ramming operation in the capital’s Akihabara electronics district in 2008.

Japan’s Ministry of Justice refused to confirm to state broadcaster NHK and other media the execution of Kato, who drove a two-ton truck into a crowd in the popular district that houses a market for video games and cartoons, on June 8, 2008.

Kato continued his assault by getting out of the truck and stabbing several people indiscriminately, before heading to the police and confessing, “I came to Akihabara to kill people,” according to AFP.

Police said Kato documented his bloody journey to Akihabara from his mobile phone via online bulletin boards, where he said, while behind the wheel of a truck, that he suffered from loneliness and job instability.

The son of a banking worker in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, Kato was reported to have failed college entrance exams and eventually trained to be a mechanic.

Prosecutors said Cato’s self-confidence was shaken when a woman stopped chatting with him online after he sent her his picture.

During his trial, Kato expressed remorse in a letter to a 56-year-old taxi driver who was injured in the stabbing.

The attack is the worst mass killing in Japan in recent years, and Kato was sentenced to death in 2011, and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence in 2015.

It is noteworthy that Kato’s execution is the first in Japan this year, after the execution of 3 convicts in December 2021.

Japan is one of the few developed countries to retain the death penalty, and public support for the capital punishment remains high despite international criticism, especially rights groups.

Death sentences are carried out by hanging, but often long after sentencing.