Man charged with murder over anime studio arson attack

TOKYO • Japanese prosecutors have charged a man with murder over the 2019 arson attack on Kyoto Animation that killed 36 people, the country's deadliest violent crime in decades.

Shinji Aoba, 42, was detained in the aftermath of the July attack, but has been under constant medical supervision since then after sustaining severe burns in the incident.

The charges include murder, attempted murder, arson, trespass and breach of the arms-control law, the Kyoto prosecutor's office said, without giving further details.

More than 30 people were also injured in the attack.

Aoba is accused of breaking into the studio's building, spreading petrol around the ground floor and setting it alight.

Aoba has reportedly confessed to the arson, and is said to have shouted "drop dead" before starting the fire.

The charges announced yesterday were made after a psychiatric evaluation, local media said.

There have been claims that Aoba accused the studio of stealing his work, which Kyoto Animation has denied doing.

Many of those killed in the blaze were young, including a 21-year-old woman.

Parents of some of those killed said news of the charges did little to ease their pain.

"My feelings don't change," Ms Chieko Takemoto, who lost her son Yasuhiro, told NHK. "When I'm alone, I want to cry, remembering him... I'm so sad he's gone."

Kyoto Animation, known by its fans as KyoAni, is well known both domestically and internationally for its role in producing popular TV anime series including The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Aoba nearly died of the injuries he sustained in the attack, a doctor who treated him told the Kyoto Shimbun newspaper recently.

He required 12 operations to apply skin grafts, the doctor said, and the hospital opted to use Aoba's own skin rather than tap a graft bank to avoid shortages of skin for his victims.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE