TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese man allegedly angry that his ideas had been stolen admitted yesterday to starting a fire that killed 36 people in an animation studio in 2019, local media said.
The blaze that ripped through the studios of Kyoto Animation in July 2019 shocked Japan as well as the huge anime industry and its fans around the world.
“It’s correct I’ve done” what is in the charges, Shinji Aoba said at the Kyoto District Court as the trial opened, 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.
Aoba, who nearly died from burns he sustained and appeared in court in a wheelchair, faces five charges including murder, attempted murder and arson.
He is accused of breaking into the studio’s building, spreading gasoline around the ground floor and setting it alight before reportedly shouting “drop dead”.
Many of those killed in the blaze were young staff, including a 21-year-old woman. Over 30 others were injured. Aoba’s lawyers yesterday 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.
The charges against him were made after a psychiatric evaluation, and prosecutors told the court 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 January 25.
