Nobuyuki Shirai entered Uji Elementary School on Dec. 18, armed with a kitchen knife, and attacked two 7-year-old boys in a first-grade classroom on the second floor, according to the indictment.

The two boys suffered minor head cuts.

Shirai, who has been hospitalized 23 times with mental problems, made incoherent and emotional remarks upon his arrest.

But the Kyoto District Public Prosecutor's Office decided to indict him, having determined following a simple psychiatric examination that while he has a personality disorder, he may be held criminally responsible.

Prosecutors pointed to the fact that Shirai has given specific statements as to his motives and on how the attack was carried out.

According to prosecutors, Shirai told them while under the influence of tranquilizers that he had intended to attack elementary school children "because it would be easy," adding that he had wanted to destroy everything, including himself.

Shirai confessed that he pretended to be psychotic at the time of his arrest by doing and saying incomprehensible things, such as saying he had come from Mars, they said.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 17, 2004
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