[3][4] Justin McCurry of The Guardian described the attack as one of the worst crimes committed on Japanese soil in modern history.

[6] Established by the local government, the facility was built in a 30,890 square metres (7.63 acres) area of woodland on the bank of the Sagami River.

[2][12] Police were called to the care center by staff members at around 02:30 local time, reporting a man with a knife breaking into the building.

[14] The suspect turned himself in at the Tsukui Police Station two hours after the incident with a bag containing kitchen knives and other bloodstained sharp tools.

[21] Uematsu's letter appealed for the legalization of ending the lives of those with multiple disabilities in cases where it was requested by their guardians, and asked for Ōshima's assistance in delivering his message to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.

[25] Later that month, after his letter was brought to the attention of Sagamihara's authorities, he was arrested, detained, questioned, and then involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital for two weeks.

[8][27][28][29][30] In his letter and in statements made after turning himself in, Uematsu explained that he was "saving from unhappiness" both the severely disabled and those who he believed were burdened with maintaining their lives.

[32] Uematsu's defense team said they planned to argue that he was mentally incompetent at the time of the crime, due to the effects of marijuana.

[36] On 17 February 2020, the prosecution announced that the death penalty was officially sought against Uematsu saying the rampage was "inhumane" and left "no room for leniency.

[42][43] Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time, acknowledged that the attack was "a very heart-wrenching and shocking incident in which many innocent people became victims".

[53] One year after the stabbings, on 26 July 2017, a documentary was released entitled Nineteen Paper Cranes by filmmaker Michael Joseph McDonald.

The film follows a deaf Japanese papermaker with Kabuki syndrome as she memorializes the nineteen victims of the Sagamihara stabbings.