Death sentence for man who torched Japanese anime studio he claimed stole his ideas, killing 36 people (2024)

A Japanese court has sentenced a man to death after finding him guilty of murder and other crimes over a shocking arson attack on an anime studio in Kyoto that killed 36 people.

Key points:

  • About 70 people were working inside the studio whenAoba stormed in
  • Public support for capital punishment is high in Japan, which along with the US are the only two G7 nations to hand down death sentences
  • Aoba's defence lawyers had argued he was mentally unfit to be held criminally responsible but the court found he was fit to be tried and convicted him

The Kyoto District Court said it found the defendant, Shinji Aoba, mentally capable to face punishment for the crimes and announced his capital punishment after a recess in a two-part session on Thursday.

Aoba stormed into Kyoto Animation's Number 1 studio on July 18, 2019, and set it on fire.

About 70 people were working inside the studio in southern Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, at the time of the attack.

One of the survivors said he saw a black cloud rising from downstairs, then scorching heat came and he jumped from a window of the three storey building gasping for air.

Many of the victims were believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

More than 30 other people were badly burned or injured.

A number of victims were found on a spiral stairwell leading to the roof, suggesting they were overcome as they desperately tried to escape.

"There was a person who jumped from the second floor … but we couldn't rush to help because the fire was so strong," one woman told local media at the time.

"It was like I was looking at hell."

For families of the deceased, the pain of their loss remains excruciating to this day.

"I should have told her not to go to work that morning," the mother of 49-year-old Naomi Ishida told the Mainichi Shimbun daily this week.

"Even if he gets the death penalty, Naomi and others won't come back. I feel empty," said the woman, whose husband died a month before the first hearing.

Death sentence for man who torched Japanese anime studio he claimed stole his ideas, killing 36 people (1)

Aoba plotted train station attack

Judge Keisuke Masuda said Aoba had wanted to be a novelist but was unsuccessful and so he sought revenge, thinking that Kyoto Animation had stolen novels he submitted as part of a company contest, according to local media.

NHK national television also reported that Aoba, who was out of work and struggling financially after repeatedly changing jobs, had plotted a separate attack on a train station north of Tokyo a month before the arson attack on the animation studio.

Aoba plotted the attacks after studying past criminal cases involving arson, the court said in the ruling, noting the process showed that Aoba had premeditated the crime and was mentally capable.

"The attack that instantly turned the studio into hell and took the precious lives of 36 people, caused them indescribable pain," the judge said, according to NHK.

Aoba, who was arrested near the scene after the attack, faced five charges including murder, attempted murder and arson.

Inside the courtroom packed with family members of the victims, one person cried and covered their eyes as the judge spoke, NHK reported.

"I didn't think so many people would die, and now I think I went too far," Aoba told the Kyoto District Court when the trial opened in September, reports said at the time.

About 90 per cent of Aoba's body was severely burned in the fire, and he was hospitalised for 10 months before his arrest in May 2020.

The 45-year-old reportedly needed 12 operations and was unconscious for weeks after his fatal attack.

For his sentencing, he appeared in court in a wheelchair.

Aoba's defence lawyers had argued he was mentally unfit to be held criminally responsible.

Japanese media have described Aoba as being thought of as a troublemaker who repeatedly changed contract jobs and apartments and quarrelled with neighbours.

Support for capital punishment high in Japan

Kyoto Animation wasfounded in 1981 and better known as KyoAni.

It made a mega-hit anime series about high school girls, and the studio trained aspirants to the craft.

The fire at its studio was Japan's deadliest since 2001, when a blaze in Tokyo's congested Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people.

It was the country's worst-known case of arson in modern times.

Japan and the US are the only Group of Seven (G7) nations that carry out capital punishment.

In Japan, capital punishment is typically handed down in murder cases with more than one victim, and polls have shown public support remains high.

Criticism from rights groups has also been rife, with inmates often informed of their imminent execution on the morning of the day they are to be hanged.

The last execution was in 2022 and, as of December, 107 people were on death row.

The highest-profile executions in recent years were in 2018, when Japan hanged 13 people — including the guru of a doomsday cult — responsible for the 1995 sarin attacks on Tokyo's subway.

Wires/ABC

Death sentence for man who torched Japanese anime studio he claimed stole his ideas, killing 36 people (2024)
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