Japanese man admits starting Kyoto Animation studio fire in 2019: Reports
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The 2019 fire at Kyoto Animation killed 36 people, many of them young employees.
PHOTO: AFP
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TOKYO - A Japanese man reportedly angry that his ideas had been stolen admitted on Tuesday to starting a fire that killed 36 people in an animation studio in 2019,
The blaze that ripped through the studios of Kyoto Animation in July 2019 shocked the anime industry
“It’s correct I’ve done” what is in the charges, Shinji Aoba said at the Kyoto District Court, according to the Jiji Press news agency.
“I didn’t think so many people would die, and now I think I went too far,” said the 45-year-old, who appeared in court in a wheelchair.
But Aoba’s lawyers entered a not guilty plea for him, citing mental incompetence, the reports said.
Aoba, who nearly died from serious burns due to the fire,
He is accused of breaking into the studio’s building, pouring petrol over the ground floor and setting it alight before reportedly shouting “drop dead”.
Many of those killed in the blaze were young employees, including a 21-year-old woman. More than 30 others were injured.
Aoba’s lawyers on Tuesday entered a plea of not guilty, saying he “did not have the capacity to distinguish between good and bad and to stop committing the crime due to mental disorder”, public broadcaster NHK said.
Grief
Ms Chieko Takemoto, who lost her son, told NHK ahead of the hearing that “the grief over the loss remains the same after four years since the incident”.
She said: “My son will not come back... but I want to know how the defendant feels now and whether he feels guilty about his crime.”
On Tuesday, 500 people lined up outside court hoping to secure one of 35 seats reserved for the public, a court spokesman said.
“I had to come, as an anime fan,” a university student from Osaka in the queue told NHK. “If he’s aware of his guilt, I want him to apologise.”
90 per cent burns
Shinji Aoba, the defendant in the Kyoto Animation arson murder case, being transported to a police station, on May 27, 2020.
PHOTO: AFP
Firefighters told reporters at the time that the incident was “unprecedented”, and the mission to rescue victims and extinguish the fire was “extremely difficult”.
More than 90 per cent of Aoba’s skin was burned, and a doctor who treated him told Yomiuri newspaper this week that he required 12 operations.
Aoba regained consciousness weeks later and was said to have sobbed with relief after undergoing a procedure that restored his ability to speak.
People wait in line for tickets to attend Shinji Aoba’s trial, in Kyoto on Sept 5.
PHOTO: AFP
The charges against him were made after a psychiatric evaluation, and prosecutors said the arson attack was “committed out of misplaced resentment”. Aoba had a “delusion” that the studio stole his ideas, they said, something denied by Kyoto Animation.
The court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Jan 25.
Kyoto Animation, known by its fans as KyoAni, is famous at home and abroad for its role in producing popular TV anime series including The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya and K-ON!
Kyoto Animation president Hideaki Hatta said he was “heartbroken for the employees who lost their lives and people who were close to them”, according to NHK. AFP
