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{{short description|2001 mass stabbing at an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka, Japan}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Ikeda school massacre
| image = File:Osaka_Kyoiku_University_Ikeda_elementary_school.jpg
| caption = The Ikeda Elementary School where the attack took place, pictured in 2018
| location = [[Ikeda, Osaka|Ikeda]], [[Osaka Prefecture]], Japan
| coordinates = {{coord|34.820152|135.439167}}
| time = 10:15 – 10:20 a.m.
| timezone = [[Japan Standard Time|JST]]
| target = Students and staff at Ikeda Elementary School
| date = {{start date and age|2001|6|8|df=y}}
| type = [[Mass stabbing]], [[school stabbing]], [[mass murder]], [[pedicide]]
| fatalities = 8<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/06/08/japan.stabbing.02/ "At least eight dead in Osaka school rampage"] June 8, 2001. [[cnn.com]]</ref>
| injuries = 16 (including the perpetrator)
| perp = [[Mamoru Takuma]]
| weapon = * 15.8 cm [[Deba bōchō|deba knife]]
* 17.1 cm [[Santoku|bunka knife]] (unused)<ref>{{Cite web |title=附属池田小事件判決 - Wikisource |url=https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/%E9%99%84%E5%B1%9E%E6%B1%A0%E7%94%B0%E5%B0%8F%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E5%88%A4%E6%B1%BA |access-date=2025-09-16 |website=ja.wikisource.org |language=ja}}</ref>
| motive = [[Misanthropy|Hatred towards society]]
}}

The '''Ikeda school massacre''' (sometimes referred to as the '''Osaka school massacre''') was a [[school stabbing]] and [[mass murder]] that occurred in [[Ikeda, Osaka|Ikeda]], [[Osaka Prefecture]], Japan, on 8 June 2001. [[Mamoru Takuma]], a 37-year-old [[ex-convict]] with a history of [[mentally disturbed]] and [[Anti-social behaviour|anti-social]] behavior, stabbed eight students to death and seriously wounded fifteen others in a [[knife attack]] that lasted several minutes. Takuma was [[Capital punishment in Japan|sentenced to death]] in August 2003, and executed in September 2004. As of 2025, it is currently the deadliest school attack in Japanese history.

==Perpetrator==
{{main|Mamoru Takuma}}
{{unreferencedsect|date=March 2024}}
[[Mamoru Takuma]] was a 37-year-old [[ex-convict]] from [[Itami, Hyōgo|Itami]], [[Hyōgo Prefecture]], who had a long history of [[mentally disturbed]] and [[Anti-social behaviour|anti-social]] behavior since childhood and an extensive [[criminal record]] that included a conviction for [[rape]]. As a teenager, Takuma's volatile behavior led to him being kicked out of school and his father eventually [[disowning]] him. After being released from prison in 1989, Takuma moved to the nearby city of [[Ikeda, Osaka|Ikeda]], [[Osaka Prefecture]], working various part-time jobs in the area but often being fired for erratic or violent behavior.

In 1999, he was detained at a [[psychiatric hospital]] while working as a [[janitor]] at Itami City Ikejiri Elementary, after slipping his [[temazepam]] into tea he served in a teachers' room at the school, resulting in staff being hospitalized. Takuma attempted [[suicide]] at the psychiatric hospital but was soon determined as fit to be released. In October 2000, Takuma was charged with assaulting a [[bellhop]] while working as a taxi driver in [[Osaka]]. He was to attend a court hearing scheduled for 8 June 2001, the day on which the massacre occurred. 

==Attack==
On 8 June 2001, the day of his court hearing for the bellhop assault case, Takuma drove to the Ikeda Elementary School, an elite school affiliated with the [[Osaka Kyoiku University]]. Earlier that morning, he tried unsuccessfully to start a fire in his apartment by using a lit cigarette to get revenge on his tenant, whom he had long disliked.<ref>Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo evening edition, December 27, 2001, p. 3, "Summary of the prosecution's opening statement in the Ikeda Elementary School child murder case"</ref> Takuma then visited a knife shop at around 10:00 a.m., where he purchased a 15.8-centimetre (6.2-inch) long [[Deba bōchō|Deba knife]], a type of kitchen knife used to cut fish, for [[Japanese yen|¥]]7,480. There was also a second knife in his car, which he planned to use to murder his ex-wife.<ref>Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo evening edition, December 27, 2001, social page 1, "Takuma pleads guilty to Ikeda Elementary School murder case, first hearing, responsibility at issue, Osaka District Court"</ref> 

Takuma parked his car in front of the school's east gate, before making his way to the south building, which housed multiple first- and second-year classrooms.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=産経新聞 |date=2021-06-07 |title=【池田小事件２０年】校内に３４人の教職員 わずか４分 防げなかった凶行 |url=https://www.sankei.com/article/20210607-CQOQR4TEJFK6HNGS2BF65CSHUE/ |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=産経新聞：産経ニュース |language=ja}}</ref><ref name=":1">Asahi Shimbun, June 9, 2001, Tokyo Social Section, p. 39, "'That cheerful child...' 8 people stabbed to death at Osaka elementary school. He was not good at practicing the horizontal bar, but he was good at making people laugh. He sheds tears thinking of the children who were killed."</ref> The attack began just after 10:10 a.m.; Takuma first climbed through a window before crossing the hallway and entering a second-year classroom, where he stabbed five students to death. He then entered two more second-year classrooms and indiscriminately attacked those inside, killing two more students in one of the rooms.<ref name=":0" /> All of the students killed in these classrooms were girls, and a first-year teacher was also stabbed in the back.<ref name=":1" /> Two other teachers began to chase Takuma, who briefly made a gesture as if he was going to chase after students who had fled from the first classroom he attacked, but then ran into a first-year classroom where he stabbed a young boy to death. He then attacked other students from the same classroom who were returning from a music class.

The massacre finally ended at around 10:20 a.m., after the vice principal and one of the teachers were able to subdue the attacker, though the teacher was slashed in the face while trying to hold back the knife. Takuma said nothing throughout the entire attack,<ref name=":1" /> though at the end of his rampage he began ranting incoherent statements but eventually calmed down. Takuma was taken into custody by law enforcement, but he was first treated at a hospital for minor injuries to his left hand.<ref>Yomiuri Shimbun, Osaka morning edition, June 9, 2001, front page, "8 children killed in Ikeda Elementary School massacre at Daikyo University, man's statement: 'I'm sick of everything'" ( Yomiuri Shimbun Osaka Headquarters )</ref>

==Fatalities==
All of the victims were female second-graders, except for one first-grade boy.<ref>"Knife-Wielding Man Kills 8 Children at Japanese School." ''[[The New York Times]]''. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E6DC143EF93AA35755C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 2].</ref>

*Yuki Hongo (本郷 優希 ''Hongō Yūki'')
*Mayuko Isaka (猪阪 真宥子 ''Isaka Mayuko'')
*Yuuka Kiso (木曽 友香 ''Kiso Yūka'')
*Ayano Moriwaki (森脇 綾乃 ''Moriwaki Ayano'')
*Maki Sakai (酒井 麻希 ''Sakai Maki'')
*Takahiro Totsuka (戸塚 健大 ''Totsuka Takahiro'') (the only boy to die in the attack)<ref name="archives.cnn.com">"[https://web.archive.org/web/20080109013653/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/06/09/japan.stabbing.02/index.html Japan mourns school victims]." [[CNN]]. June 10, 2001. Retrieved on February 5, 2010.</ref>
*Hana Tsukamoto (塚本 花菜 ''Tsukamoto Hana'')
*Rena Yamashita (山下 玲奈 ''Yamashita Rena'')

==Aftermath==
Takuma was diagnosed with [[paranoid personality disorder]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2001/06/13/national/suspect-may-suffer-from-personality-disorder/#.WVGPNWjyvIU|title=Suspect may suffer from personality disorder|newspaper=[[The Japan Times]]|access-date=June 26, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Osaka+massacre+suspect+Takuma+not+schizophrenic%3A+psychiatrist.-a084532275|title=Osaka massacre suspect Takuma not schizophrenic: psychiatrist|date=March 28, 2002|publisher=[[Kyodo News]]|access-date=June 26, 2017}}</ref> He was later convicted and [[Capital punishment in Japan|sentenced to death]] by [[hanging]]. He was executed on September 14, 2004.<ref name="archives.cnn.com"/>

The attack is currently the sixth deadliest [[mass murder]], along with the [[Matsumoto incident]], in recent Japanese history, surpassed in fatalities only by the [[Tokyo subway sarin attack]], the [[Osaka movie theatre fire|Osaka movie theater fire]],<ref>Fox News:[https://www.foxnews.com/story/fire-at-japanese-adult-video-theater-kills-15 Fire at Japanese Adult Video Theater Kills 15]</ref> the [[Sagamihara stabbings]], the [[Kyoto Animation arson attack]], and the [[Myojo 56 building fire]]. At the time, it was tied with the Matsumoto sarin attack as the second deadliest, behind the Tokyo subway sarin attack. The incident set itself apart, however, by the age of the victims, its venue (a school), and the perpetrator's history of [[mental illness]].<ref name="archives.cnn.com" /> Because of these factors, the attack raised questions about Japan's social policies for dealing with mental illness, the rights of victims and criminals, and the accessibility and security of Japanese schools.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080621060243/http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/japan.html Human Rights in Japan - Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions<!-- Bot generated title -->]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Watts|first=Jonathan|date=July 2001|title=Japan reviews policy on mental illness and crime|journal=[[The Lancet]]|volume=358|issue=9278|pages=305|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(01)05527-1|pmid=11498227|s2cid=27282125 }}</ref>

After the attack, Yoshio Yamane, the principal administrator of the school, announced that it would bring in a security guard, an at-the-time unheard-of practice at Japanese schools.<ref name="archives.cnn.com"/> [[J-pop]] artist [[Hikaru Utada]] rearranged her song "Distance" in honor of Rena Yamashita, one of the murdered schoolgirls, because of an essay contest the girl had won, talking about how she respected and wanted to be like Utada, renaming it "[[Final Distance]]".

Some children, faculty, and parents developed [[post-traumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD).<ref>{{Cite web|title=負傷児童の保護者と大阪教育大学及び附属池田小学校との合意書締結｜国立大学法人 大阪教育大学|url=https://osaka-kyoiku.ac.jp/safety/fuzoku/ikd/goui/agreement20050508.html|access-date=2021-01-06|website=osaka-kyoiku.ac.jp}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Akihabara massacre]], which happened exactly 7 years after
*[[School massacre]]
*[[List of massacres in Japan]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite web|author=Larimer, Tim|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,129899,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514122839/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,129899,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2008-05-14|title=Cutting Into Innocence|work=[[Time Magazine]]|date=2001-06-10}}
*{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com:80/time/asia/news/magazine/0,9754,129949,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010616111251/http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/magazine/0,9754,129949,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2001-06-16|title=Death Knell|magazine=[[Time Asia]]|date=2001-06-18|volume=157|issue=24|access-date=2020-12-23}}
*{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com:80/time/asia/news/magazine/0,9754,129728,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011031212316/http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/magazine/0,9754,129728,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2001-10-31|title='There's a Crazy Man Stabbing People'|magazine=[[Time Asia]]|access-date=2020-12-23}}
*{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com:80/time/asia/news/daily/0,9754,129943,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010806003253/http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/daily/0,9754,129943,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2001-08-06|title=A Nation Weeps|magazine=[[Time Asia]]|access-date=2020-12-23}}

{{Mass stabbings before 2010}}

{{coord|34|49|15.16|N|135|26|22.28|E|type:edu_scale:10000000_region:JP|display=title}}

[[Category:2001 murders in Japan]]
[[Category:21st-century mass murder in Japan]]
[[Category:Attacks on schools in 2001]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in Japan]]
[[Category:Child murder in Japan]]
[[Category:Deaths by stabbing in Japan]]
[[Category:Elementary school killings]]
[[Category:History of Osaka Prefecture]]
[[Category:Ikeda, Osaka]]
[[Category:Incidents of violence against girls]]
[[Category:June 2001 crimes in Asia]]
[[Category:June 2001 in Japan]]
[[Category:Knife attacks in Japan]]
[[Category:Mass stabbings in Japan]]
[[Category:Massacres in 2001]]
[[Category:Massacres in Japan]]
[[Category:Massacres of women]]
[[Category:School massacres in Asia]]
[[Category:School stabbings in Asia]]
[[Category:Stabbing attacks in 2001]]
[[Category:Violence against women in Japan]]
[[Category:Mass stabbings in Asia]]