TOKYO - A JAPANESE man jailed for a stabbing frenzy in Tokyo's crowded electronics district has apologised for the crime and said he deserves to die, according to a letter to his victims published Saturday.

Tomohiro Kato, a 27-year-old former auto worker, has been charged with murder and attempted murder after allegedly killing seven people and injuring 10 others in June 2008.

'I think your anger must have reached boiling point' because the trial has not yet begun due to the sluggish pace of Japan's judicial system, Kato wrote, in a letter published in the Yomiuri and other newspapers.

'I decided I should apologise as a human being,' he said, noting that what he had done could not be undone. 'For my crime I deserve to die many times over and will naturally get the death penalty.'

Kato was arrested on the spot in one of the worst crimes to hit Japan in recent years, after allegedly ramming a rented truck into pedestrians in the Akihabara electronics district before beginning to randomly slash people.

He documented his journey to Akihabara on Internet bulletin boards, typing messages on a mobile phone from behind the wheel of the truck and complaining of his unstable job and loneliness in life. -- AFP