In June 2008, tragedy struck Tokyo's geek center Akihabara. A 25-year-old man named Tomohiro Kato drove a rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians. He then got out of the truck and began wildly stabbing bystanders. Seven ended up dead and ten were injured. At that time, the main drag in Akihabara was closed to vehicles, and the street had been dubbed "Pedestrian Paradise". After the massacre, the streets were no longer blocked to automobiles during the weekends. The mood in Akihabara changed forever. In an attempt to restore a sense of security to the area, this past Tuesday saw the installation of sixteen security cameras in the Akihabara streets.

I know I would be damn reluctant to drive a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians and then jump out an start randomly stabbing them to death if there were any chance of it being seen on a video monitor ... especially in a police state ...