[ad_1]
TOKYO: Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday (Dec. 16) charged a man with murder in the 2019 arson at Kyoto Animation that killed 36 people, local media said.
The attack was the country’s deadliest violent crime in decades.
Shinji Aoba, 42, was detained in the wake of the July 2019 attack, but has since been hospitalized with severe burns sustained in the incident and reportedly only regained consciousness the following month.
The charges, which according to the Kyoto Shimbun newspaper also included attempted murder and arson, came after a psychiatric evaluation of Aoba.
The Kyoto prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation of the charges.
More than 30 people were also injured in the attack, in which Aoba is accused of breaking into the studio building, spraying gasoline on the ground floor and setting it on fire.
Aoba has reportedly confessed to the arson and is said to have yelled “die” before starting the fire.
There have been allegations that he accused the studio of stealing his work, which Kyoto Animation has denied doing.
Shinji Aoba, photographed here in May, nearly died from injuries sustained in the attack, said a doctor who treated him. (File photo: AFP / STR)
Many of those who died in the fire were young, including a 21-year-old woman.
Parents of some of the dead said news of the charges did little to ease their pain.
“My feelings don’t change,” 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.”
“No matter what (Aoba) says in court, Yasuhiro will not come back,” added his father Yasuo Takemoto.
“This reality will not change no matter what opinion is given.”
“JAPANESE JEWELS WERE LOST”
The attack sent shockwaves to the anime industry and its fans in Japan and around the world.
“These are people who carry the Japanese animation industry on their shoulders,” Kyoto Animation president Hideaki Hatta told reporters at the time.
“It’s heartbreaking. The Japanese jewelry was lost.”
Aoba nearly died from the injuries he sustained in the attack, a doctor who treated him recently told the Kyoto Shimbun newspaper.
It took 12 surgeries to apply skin grafts, and the hospital opted to use Aoba’s own skin instead of a graft bank “to avoid skin shortages for (his) victims,” the doctor said.
Aoba regained consciousness last August, she added, and apparently sobbed in relief after undergoing a procedure in September that restored her ability to speak.
Kyoto Animation, known to her fans as KyoAni, is known both nationally and internationally for her role in producing popular television anime series, including K-On! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
While many animation studios are based in Tokyo, the company was very determined to stay in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto.
His work often features elaborate screenshots described as “KyoAni quality” by enthusiastic fans.
Violent crime and, in particular, mass casualty incidents are extremely rare in Japan, which has strict gun control laws.
Arson is considered a particularly serious crime in Japan, where many buildings are made of wood and are extremely prone to fires.
In 2008, an arson at a video store in Osaka killed 16 people and the attacker is now on death row.
Japan is one of the few developed nations that maintains the death penalty, with more than 100 prisoners on death row, and support for it remains high.
But many years often pass between sentencing and execution, which in Japan is always carried out by hanging.
