Luigi Mangiones bizarre rant after trip to Japan: Sex toys and vending machines should be banned

Since the shock slaying of UnitedHealthcare heavyweight Brian Thompson in New York City rocked America last week, people who knew the alleged assassin have been sharing surprising nuggets of information about his past.

Luigi Mangione - a 26-year-old Ivy League engineering graduate hailing from a wealthy Maryland family - spent time in Japan earlier this year, where he appears to have made strong friendships with natives and travelers. 

One person posted a photograph of the detainee enjoying a laid-back meal with a group of half a dozen young men on Reddit captioned: I had dinner with Luigi Mangione in Japan last year. 

Mangione is smiling broadly in the forefront of the photo, wearing a navy rain jacket while leaning over a table scattered with empty plates with chopsticks, glasses with cut lemons, and cigarettes. 

On TikTok, a woman posted a video of herself joking around with Mangione in a grocery store. The pair were seen giggling while wearing Covid masks as Mangione held up a box of ice-cream flavored with mochi - Japanese rice cakes.

Gurwinder Bhogal, a UK-based writer who told DailyMail.com he spoke with Mangione over video call in June while he was still in Tokyo, described him as one of the nicest people Ive ever met.

But beyond his benevolent, carefree exterior, Mangione was also deeply political and concerned with some of the things he witnessed in Japan - and all the while he was estranged from his American family. 

One person posted a photograph of the detainee enjoying a laid-back meal with a group of half a dozen young men on Reddit captioned: I had dinner with Luigi Mangione in Japan last year

On TikTok , a woman posted a video of herself joking around with Mangione in a grocery store. The pair were seen giggling while wearing Covid masks as Mangione held up a box of ice-cream flavored with mochi - Japanese rice cakes

Luigi Mangione, 26, was taken into custody on firearm charges Monday afternoon

Mangione aired his views at length on his X account. Modern Japanese urban environment is an evolutionary mismatch for the human animal, he wrote in April this year. 

The solution to falling birthdates isnt immigration. Its cultural. Encourage natural human interaction, sex, physical fitness and spirituality.

Mangione gave a list of suggested improvements - including banning sex toys like Tenga fleshlights and custom pornstar pocket pussies , and replacing conveyor belt sushi and vending machine ordering with actual human interaction with a waiter. 

He also said Japan should replace 24/7 eSports cafes where young males earn false fitness signals via Tekken fighting and Overwatch shooting games, with athletics in school.

The alleged assassin went on to rip into lonely salarymen who pay young girls to dress as anime characters and perform anime dances for them in another criticism of the east Asian nation. 

Mangione also spoke about his worries via email with Bhogal, saying Japanese citizens appeared overly-obedient to the point of being NPCs - non playable characters in video games which are not controlled by a player but by the wider environment. 

Japan is peak NPC-ville, Mangione wrote in the email, which was screenshotted and shared on X by his friend. 

Scary lack of free will in this country, he continued. Ill have to tell you a story from my morning today, where I saw a dude have a seizure on the street and ran two blocks to the police station. 

They followed me to help, but refused to walk across any empty streets if the spotlight was red even while the guy was seizing on the ground. 

Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at point-blank range on December 5

Mangione spoke about his worries via email with the man he met in May, saying Japanese citizens appeared overly-obedient to the point of being NPCs - non playable characters in video games which are not controlled by a player but by the wider environment

When asked for more information about Mangiones views on Japan, Bhogal told DailyMail.com: All I recall is him complaining about how people in Japan don’t really live their lives.

Most of the young men are addicted to video games, pornography, and other shallow entertainments.

He believed these were stopping Japanese people from dating and starting families, and he worried about declining birthrates. 

Gurwinder Bhogal, a UK-based writer, spoke with DailyMail.com about Mangione

He also mentioned Japanese culture was too rigid and rulebound for his liking.

The Reddit photograph appears to have been posted by Japanese poker player Obara Jun, who elaborated on their meeting on X. 

I live in Japan and was having a fun meal with a friend at a restaurant in Tokyo that day. He came in by himself, and we talked to him and treated him to a meal and drinks because we wanted him to enjoy Japan. 

He said he was on vacation from Hawaii, and we ate together for about 30 minutes before parting ways. 

Jun said he knew nothing about Mangione apart from this, and said he was hopeful for his arrest, while expressing condolences for Thompsons family. 

The 2020 University of Pennsylvania graduate was arrested on Monday morning moments after eating a hash brown at a McDonalds in an Altoona, PA. 

Cops closed in on the alleged killer after an employee at the restaurant recognized him from surveillance images NYPD shared online in the wake of the Midtown Manhattan shooting. 

New York City police had been searching for the shooter for days before Mangione was arrested

He reportedly gave police a fake ID when they started to question him

He was later charged with second-degree murder over the slaying of Thompson, 50, just before 7am on Wednesday outside the Hilton hotel where the exec had been set to make a speech to finance heavyweights later that day.

Mangione led police on a 280-mile manhunt from New York Citys 6th Avenue to the small Pennsylvania city of Altoona, around 100 miles east of Pittsburgh. 

He left a trail of overt clues about his motive, including ammunition etched with the words delay deny and depose and a bag of Monopoly board game money in his backpack left in Central Park. 

Officials believe the bullet etchings refer to the three Ds of insurance - tactics used by American insurance giants to reject patients claims. 

This motive appeared to be even more clearly outlined in a handwritten manifesto cops seized from Mangione during his arrest on Monday, which the NYPDs chief of detectives Joseph Kenny said expressed ill will toward corporate America.

To the Feds, Ill keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country, Mangione wrote in the three-page document. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasnt working with anyone.

Mangione (pictured in his mugshot) will next appear in court in New York at a later date

I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done, Mangione added in the document. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.

Mangione also allegedly had a ghost gun believed to be the rare World War Two era-inspired 9mm pistol used in Thompsons murder, which the New York Post reported was a Swiss-made Brugger & Thomet VP9, and a silencer. 

He was denied bond and not represented by an attorney during his arraignment in the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania on Monday night. Mangione will next appear in court in New York at a later date.