Solved case · 2019
Also known as 2018 Takeshita Street vehicle-ramming attack
Takeshita stCredit: Brandon Daniel from Sunnyvale, CA, USACC BY-SA 2.0SourceThe short answer
Early on January 1, 2019, a 21-year-old man drove a rental car the wrong way down Harajuku's crowded Takeshita Street, injuring nine people in what he told police was a terrorist act protesting the execution of Aum Shinrikyo cult members.
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Suggest coverage for 2019 Tokyo car attackShortly after midnight on January 1, 2019, a vehicle-ramming attack occurred on Takeshita Street in the Harajuku district of Shibuya ward, Tokyo. The street, a narrow pedestrian thoroughfare near Meiji Shrine, was closed to traffic for New Year's celebrations and crowded with revelers at the time. A driver entered the street through a gap in a police barricade near the end facing Meiji-dori and drove approximately 140 meters against the flow of pedestrian traffic before crashing into a building.
Eight men, ranging in age from 19 to 51, were struck and injured by the vehicle, with the 19-year-old victim taken to a hospital in critical condition. A ninth man was also injured, reportedly when the driver struck him after getting out of the car. All nine injured victims were men. The vehicle used was a rental Daihatsu Move bearing Osaka license plates.
The driver fled the scene on foot but was located by police in nearby Yoyogi Park 20 to 30 minutes later. He was identified as 21-year-old Kazuhiro Kusakabe, born 1997 and from Neyagawa, Osaka. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Kusakabe told authorities that he had intentionally rammed the crowd as a terrorist act in retaliation for the July 2018 executions of Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult members, the group responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. Police said they were investigating a possible link between Kusakabe and the former cult. According to reporting by The Asahi Shimbun cited in the case record, Kusakabe told police he had originally planned an arson attack, stating he intended "to set fire by spreading kerosene with the high-pressure washer, targeting a crowd at Meiji Shrine." Investigators believe he changed his plan after discovering that vehicles were not permitted near the shrine due to the high volume of visitors on the holiday. A 30-liter tank of kerosene and a pressure washer were found inside the vehicle, though no fire was reported at the scene.
Kusakabe was subsequently convicted of attempted murder in connection with the attack and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult members were executed, an event Kusakabe later cited as his motive for the attack.
A driver rammed a vehicle into pedestrians on Takeshita Street in Harajuku, Tokyo, injuring eight men in the collision and a ninth man separately; the driver fled and was found in nearby Yoyogi Park 20-30 minutes later and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Convicted of attempted murder for driving a vehicle into pedestrians on Takeshita Street; sentenced to 18 years in prison.[3]
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