Japan: Man convicted of capital punishment for Kyoto anime fire that claimed 36 lives

A man from Japan has been given the punishment of death for setting fire to a Kyoto animation studio in 2019. The fire killed 36 people and hurt many others.

The event was one of the worst in Japan in a long time. It mostly killed young artists and shocked the anime community.

Shinji Aoba, who is 45 years old, admitted to the attack, but his lawyers asked for a shorter punishment because they believe he has mental problems.

The judges didn’t listen and said Aoba knew what he was doing.

“I have decided that the person who did the crime was not mentally ill or weak at the time,” said Chief Judge Masuda at Kyoto District Court on Thursday.

The loss of 36 lives is very sad and serious. The dead people were very scared and hurt. That’s what a Japanese TV station said.

A lot of the young artists who worked on the animated movies died because they couldn’t escape from the higher floors of the studio when the fire got bigger.

The attack was one of the worst in Japan in a long time and made many people in the country very sad. The people and news have been paying a lot of attention to the case in the country.

The prosecutors wanted Aoba to be killed because they believed he attacked the studio because he thought someone stole his work. He said that Kyoto Animation, also known as KyoAni, had copied a novel he submitted to their contest.

In July 2019, he came into the studio while people were working, poured gasoline on the floor, and lit it on fire while yelling “Drop dead” over and over.

During his guilty plea in September 2023, he said that he didn’t realize so many people would die.

“I had to do it, I didn’t have a choice,” he said then.

“I feel really bad and I also feel guilty. ”

Aoba got badly burned in the fire and had to have lots of operations. He was arrested after he got better.
Shinji Aoba, who said he set fire to the Kyoto Animation studio, is being carried on a stretcher to a police station in Kyoto.

“The belief that KyoAni Studio copied his work affected his motivation,” prosecutors told the court.

But they said he was not influenced by those wrong beliefs and he understood what he was doing.

On Thursday, the judge explained why he made his decision and listened to the victims before saying if the person was guilty or not. More than half of the 70 people who worked at the animation studio were killed, and 32 others were hurt.

“Judge Masuda said that some people saw their friends on fire and now feel really sad and guilty, and are also having a hard time with their feelings. ”

The families of the people Aoba hurt were in the court. They looked upset while the judge talked about what Aoba did. NHK told this.

The news said that Aoba kept looking down when the judge said he would be given the death penalty.

Japan still uses the death penalty for its worst crimes, such as when someone commits multiple murders. Those found guilty usually stay on death row for a long time, sometimes even for many years. The death penalty is when someone is killed by hanging.

The KyoAni studio in Kyoto makes movies and comic books that people really like. They are famous for making K-On. and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.