Arsonist sentenced to death for killing 36 people in Kyoto studio fire in 2019

A Japanese judge has sentenced to death a man who killed 36 people in an arson attack on an anime studio in Kyoto in 2019, one of the country's deadliest attacks in decades, after he was found guilty of murder on Thursday.

Shinji Aoba, the defendant, was accused of murder in 2020, a year after the burning of the studio of Kyoto animation. He himself was severely burned in the fire and was unconscious for weeks afterwards, forcing authorities to wait to charge him until he had sufficiently recovered.

Mr. Aoba had one history of mental illness. The Kyoto District Court said he was mentally competent to be punished for his crimes, The Associated Press reported.

In July 2019, Mr Aoba stormed the studio with gasoline, forcibly sprayed it and set it on fire with a gas lighter, the judge said on Thursday, according to local reports. Mr Aoba did this, the judge added, out of spite – he was convinced the studio had done so stole a novel from him.

The arson shocked Japan, where violent attacks are rare. Mr. Aoba, according to police reports at the time, had bought about 10 gallons of gasoline at a gas station near the studio before the attack and shouted, “Die!” as he set fire to the building, which quickly went up in flames. Many of the victims almost two-thirds of them are womendied of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The judge, Keisuke Masuda, said on Thursday that Mr Aoba had previously planned an attack on a train station but had abandoned the idea. “Amid his poverty and isolation, he attempted to commit mass murder at Omiya Station in Saitama City a month before the incident,” Judge Masuda said, according to NHK, Japan's public broadcaster.

According to NHK, the number of victims was the highest for any criminal trial in more than thirty years in the country.

Kyoto Animation, known to fans as KyoAni, has been around for a long time a fixture in the anime world. It is known for its slice of life stories and detailed landscapes. Most of the studio's production had taken place in the building that was on fire.

“My heart aches when I think of my colleagues who have been killed and damaged,” Hideaki Hatta, the studio's president, said in a statement Thursday. “We have a lot of young creators who joined after the business,” he said. “We will continue to produce as many great works as possible.”