The assailant, who later told police he was "tired of living,'' drove a truck into a crowd of pedestrians shortly after noon in Tokyo's bustling Akihabara area before jumping out and stabbing strangers while screaming.
The assailant was identified as Tomohiro Kato, 25, from central Shizuoka prefecture.
He said he was a gangster before retracting his story.
"I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter whom I'd kill,'' he was quoted by Jiji Press as telling police.
Mr Kato, bespectacled in a beige suit and black-and-white sneakers, was armed with a survival knife and duelled with a police officer who fought back with a baton.
By the time Mr Kato finally dropped his knife with an officer's gun pointed at him, 17 people lay bloodied on the street of the crowded district, according to fire department and police officials.
Jiji Press and other Japanese media said seven people were dead - six men aged 19, 20, 29, 33, 47 and 74, and a 21-year-old woman.
Mr Kato had blood running down the side of his face as he was taken into custody.
Kyodo News reported that he was a temporary worker at an auto component factory in Shizuoka.
The attack fell on the anniversary of the last incident of similar magnitude in Japan - a stabbing frenzy that left eight children dead at an primary school in 2001.
Hundreds of stunned pedestrians stared from a distance as medical workers set up green plastic sheets in the middle of an intersection to ensure privacy as they gave emergency treatment.
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