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	The suspect in a fatal stabbing spree that saw 19 people killed in Japan had been hospitalised early this year after expressing a willingness to kill disabled people if the government approved, a city official has said.</p>
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	Police in the town of Tsukui near Tokyo contacted the suspect, Satoshi Uematsu, and he was involuntarily committed to hospital on 19 February after he had tried to present a letter to the speaker of the lower house of Japan&#39;s parliament, said an official from nearby Sagamihara city.</p>
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	Mr Uematsu told police he would kill many severely disabled people if the national government approved such an action, the official told Reuters.</p>
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	Mr Uematsu was discharged on 2 March after a doctor deemed his condition had improved, the official said.</p>
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	Nineteen people were stabbed and killed in their sleep and at least 25 wounded at a facility for the disabled in Sagamiharain the early hours of this morning, local time.</p>
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	Mr Uematsu, a former employee at the facility in Sagamihara town, about 40km southwest of Tokyo, handed himself into police.</p>
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	Kyodo news agency said the dead ranged in age from 19 to 70 and included nine men and 10 women.</p>
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	The 7.6 acre facility, established by the local government and nestled on the wooded bank of the Sagami River, cares for people with a wide range of disabilities, public broadcaster NHK said, quoting an unidentified employee.</p>
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	Residents of the small town of Sagamihara said the last murder in the area was ten years ago.</p>
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	A woman who said she used to work at the facility said many patients were profoundly disabled.</p>
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	Police had recovered a bag with several knives, at least one stained with blood, the Kanagawa prefecture official said.</p>
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	The facility&#39;s website said the centre had a maximum capacity of 160 people, including staff.</p>
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	Such mass killings are extremely rare in Japan and typically involve stabbings. Japan has strict gun laws and possession of firearms by the public is rare.</p>
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	Eight children were stabbed to death at their school in Osaka by a former janitor in 2001.</p>
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	Seven people died in 2008 when a man drove a truck into a crowd and began stabbing people in Tokyo&#39;s popular electronics and &quot;anime&quot; district of Akihabara.</p>
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	A revision to Japan&#39;s Swords and Firearms Control Law was introduced in 2009 in the wake of that attack, banning the possession of double-edged knives and further tightening gun-ownership rules.</p>
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	Members of a doomsday cult killed 12 people and made thousands ill in 1995 in simultaneous attacks with sarin nerve gas on five Tokyo rush-hour subway trains.</p>
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	(Published by RTE.ie on the 26th July 2016)</p>
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	<a href="http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0726/804871-japan-killing/">http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0726/804871-japan-killing/</a></p>
