A man who allegedly issued a death threat June 19th on 2ch against … (Mizuki Nana) was arrested the day prior to her July 5th LIVE FIGHTER concert in Yoyogi (between Harajuku and Shinjuku in Tokyo).
Part of the threat posted on 2ch was. This roughly reads “You can all relax. I will use a 2 ton truck and a dagger to kill Mizuki Nana and her fans in Yoyogi.”
The alleged perpetrator was Hori Daiki (21), a newspaper employee in Kawasaki City (a little more that halfway between Yokohama and Tokyo).
AP wonders why it took until the day before the concert to catch the guy. Did the police only find out about it a few days ago? We can only wonder. Especially since the idiot posted the threat using his own cell phone.
From the police investigation, when it was asked why he would do that. The response was. This roughly reads “I wanted to see the reaction to writing that”.
The maximum penalty for a death threat like this is 3 years in jail and a 500,000 Yen (roughly $4700) fine. That must not be much of a deterrent as this was the 33rd copycat killer threat since the attack in Akihabara last month.
Mizuki Nana went ahead and did the concert as planned on July 5 (unfortunately two days before I got to Japan) and briefly mentioned it before the final song saying that she was surprised and regretful that it happened.
Here is the youtube video of the news report for those interested.
Data compiled from the following sites (translations done by AP):
Nanasoutenshiki
Anime News Network