Other mass killings in Japan

► 2008 truck rampage, then a knifing An auto parts worker hits pedestrians with a rental truck in Akihabara, a district in Tokyo known for electronics, then attacks passers-by with a knife, killing seven.

► 2001 school killing near Osaka A man with a knife kills eight children and injures 15 students and teachers at Ikeda Elementary School in an Osaka suburb.

► 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway The cult Aum Shinrikyo releases sarin gas in the Tokyo subway system, killing 13 and sickening thousands more. Thirteen people, including Shoko Asahara, the leader of the cult, are on death row after being convicted in the killings. The group carried out an earlier sarin gas attack in Matsumoto that killed eight.

► 1982 plane crash in Tokyo Bay Investigators say the pilot of Japan Airlines Flight 350, flying a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, intentionally crashed the passenger jet into Tokyo Bay, killing 24.

► 1948 poisoning during a bank robbery A robber kills 12 bank workers in Tokyo by posing as a doctor and telling them to take dysentery medicine, which is actually poison containing cyanide.

SOURCE: New York Times