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Arson attack on the Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation, killing 36 people in July 2019
Photo: Kyodo / REUTERS
The perpetrator sentenced to death for a devastating arson attack on the Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation has appealed. His lawyers filed a corresponding application on Friday, as the court in Kyoto announced.
Shinji Aoba was sentenced to death on Thursday for the attack that killed 36 people in July 2019. The court rejected the defense's argument that Aoba was not guilty because of mental problems. The court explained that the now 45-year-old was neither “mentally ill” at the time of the crime nor did he suffer from “reduced mental abilities.”
Confession at the start of the trial
At the start of the trial last September, Aoba confessed to setting fire to the animation studio in Kyoto. At that time he entered the studio building and spilled a flammable liquid. He then set fire to the building while shouting, “Die!”
He told investigators that the studio had stolen his idea for a work. The studio rejected this.
Aoba himself suffered severe burns in the fire, with around 95 percent of his skin burned. He spent ten months in the hospital before being arrested in May 2020.
The attack was the deadliest crime in Japan in decades and caused horror across the country. Kyoto Animation is known for a number of animated television films such as “Munto,” “Lucky Star,” and “K-ON!” Japan is famous worldwide for its cartoons.
kub/AFP/dpa