Japanese man sentenced to death after murdering 36 young artists in arson attack

A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack on an art studio in Kyoto. The attack left 36 people dead and dozens more injured.

The 2019 incident, one of the deadliest arson attacks in Japan in decades, killed mostly young people and animation artists.

Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to murder last year, but his lawyers had hoped to have the sentence reduced on the grounds of “mental incapacity.”

In his speech before the Kyoto District Court on Thursday, presiding judge Masuda stated that “the defendant was neither mentally ill nor mentally deficient at the time of the crime.”

“The deaths of 36 people are extremely serious and tragic. The fear and pain of the deceased victims were indescribable,” reported Japanese broadcaster NHK.

The victims’ families were seen in the courtroom when the verdict was announced, many of them visibly moved as the judge read out the details of Aoba’s crimes.

Meanwhile, Aoba kept his head bowed as the judge read out the death sentence.

In July 2019, he set fire to the ground floor of the animation studio in Kyoto after dousing the floor with gasoline. As the floor caught fire, shouts of “fall dead” could be heard.

The flames soon engulfed the multi-story building and many of the young animators were trapped on the upper floors of the studio.

More than half of the animation studio’s 70 employees died in the fire and another 32 were injured.

Judge Masuda said many of the survivors of the ordeal were now “tormented by guilt and remorse” after watching their colleagues “devoured by flames”.

Prosecutors claimed that Aoba was motivated in his attack on the studio because he believed his own animations had been stolen. He claimed that Kyoto Animation, known as KyoAni, had plagiarized a novel he had submitted to their contest.

Prosecutors told the court: “His motivation was influenced by the delusion that KyoAni Studio had plagiarized his work.”

Aoba later said during his guilty plea in September 2023 that he did not think so many people would die.

“I felt like I had no choice but to do what I did,” he said at the time. “I’m incredibly sorry and I feel guilty too.”

Aoba himself suffered burns to 90 percent of his body in the fire. He was not arrested until after he had recovered from the operations.

Japan retains the death penalty for its most serious crimes, such as multiple murders. However, those convicted usually remain on death row for years, even decades. The death penalty is carried out by hanging.