Death penalty for author of fatal fire at animation studio

Most of those killed in the fire were young employees of a Kyoto animation studio nicknamed “Kyoani”, including a 21-year-old woman. While more than 30 other people were injured.

“I think I’ve gone too far”

“I didn’t think so many people would die and now I think I’ve gone too far,” the accused said on the first day of his trial last September. “I think I have to pay for my crime with (this sentence),” he also said during a subsequent hearing in December, when he was asked about the wishes of the victims’ families to be sentenced to death. .

According to several testimonies, he entered the studio building and poured gasoline on it before setting it on fire, shouting: “You’re going to die!” »

Firefighters described the fire as “unprecedented” and stressed that it was “extremely difficult” to put it out and save people.

Disillusioned but not insane

Shinji Aoba wanted to retaliate against Kyoya because he believed the company had stolen the story idea from him, an allegation firmly denied by the studio and which prosecutors called “delusional”. An arsonist himself was severely burned in a fire in Kyoto on July 18, 2019, and his injuries required multiple surgeries. He appeared at his trial in a wheelchair.

His lawyers pleaded not guilty, arguing that he lacked “the ability to distinguish between right and wrong” due to mental disorders.

But the court ruled Thursday that Mr. Aoba was “neither suffering from dementia nor impaired mental capacity at the time of the crime,” public broadcaster NHK reported.

“Give me back my daughter”

“I should have told him not to go to work that morning,” the mother of Naomi Ishida, one of the victims, who was 49, told the Mainichi daily this week. “Even if he is given the death penalty, Naomi and the others will not come back. I feel empty,” added the woman, whose husband died a month before the first hearing.

“Please give me back my daughter,” pleaded the mother of the victim, who died in the fire aged 26, and who spoke at Mr. Aoba’s trial in December, NHK quoted.

Toru Yamanaka/AFP

Along with the United States, Japan is one of the few democratic countries that still practices the death penalty, which is carried out by hanging. Despite criticism abroad, Japanese public opinion remains largely favorable.