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Japanese teen arrested over murder spree threats posted with Nintendo DSi

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Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department  arrested a 15-year-old boy this morning after the minor posted online threats to randomly kill bystanders at Shinjuku Station.

In a message published anonymously on popular local forum 2ch, the teen said he would work with two others – one would drive a car into pedestrians while the others would stab people. The attack seemed purposely modeled after 2008’s Akihabara massacre.

“I’ll launch a random attack near the entrance of the expressway bus terminal near Shinjuku Station at 9 p.m. on Feb. 11. If you don’t want to die, don’t participate in the game,” said the boy in his online posting.

According to the MPD, he published his threats using the free browser on a Nintendo DSi system – investigators were able to identify the system by its IP address, and caught up to the suspect when he accessed the internet with his DSi at an electronics shop in  Kawasaki.

The 15 year old admitted he was behind the postings and claimed he had no accomplices. He said he “wanted to see how much of a stir it would create among the public.”

Gamers everywhere were amazed that in 2011, someone was actually using the DSi’s slow and limited web browser for serious purposes. “Who does that?” asked a DSi owner* in the U.S., where many prefer to read web pages on their mobile phones when a computer isn’t available.

“Real talk,” he added, “nobody uses that damn thing. It’s kind of sad. Hopefully the Nintendo 3DS browser will be more intuitive and more useful to folks who want to surf the web on a handheld game system.”

Though the 3DS will feature a web browser menu item when the portable launches in North America on March 27th, users will not be able to actually access the application and post online threats on message boards until Nintendo releases a firmware update in late May.

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[Via Mainichi Daily News, @feitclub. Ascii image via Japanese Ascii Art.image]

*Me. Also, DSiwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

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