Kyoto Animation arson murder case: Defendant apologizes to bereaved family members he visited and explains why he appealed

The bereaved family of defendant Shinji Aoba, who lost his wife, met at the detention center after he was sentenced to death by the Kyoto District Court for setting fire to the Kyoto Animation studio and killing 36 employees. According to his family, while they received another apology, the defendant stated that the reason for his appeal was that he had something to say.

Shinji Aoba (45) was charged with setting fire to Kyoto Animation's first studio in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City in July 2019, killing 36 employees, and was sentenced to Kyoto District Court on the 25th of this month. A death sentence was handed down.

In response, the defendant's lawyer has appealed to the Osaka High Court.

The person who met with Aoba was the husband of Akiko Ikeda (44 at the time), an animator who died in the incident, real name Akiko Terawaki.

Her husband used the victim participation system to ask questions of the defendant during the trial, but there were scenes in which the defendant did not answer.Wanting to hear his true feelings, he met with the defendant at the Osaka Detention Center for two days, on the 29th and 30th. We met for 40 minutes.

According to her husband, when he told her that he was lonely without his wife and left his children behind, the defendant put his hands on the table, bowed his head, and apologized repeatedly, saying, ``I'm sorry.'' about it.

When asked about the main reason why he committed the incident, he reportedly replied, ``I wrote a novel and dared to apply to Kyoto Animation, but I was betrayed.''

On the other hand, when I asked him under what circumstances he would not have caused the incident, he said, ``I think I would have continued writing if there were readers for my novels that I posted online.''

Furthermore, regarding the reason for the appeal, he said, ``There was something I wanted to say about the psychiatric evaluation that determined it was all delusion.''

After the meeting, the husband responded to interviews with various companies, saying, ``The defendant bowed his head three times to his wife and said ``I'm really sorry'' to his children multiple times, so there was little remorse and apology. I thought it was a good idea.However, there were parts of the conversation that didn't make sense, and I once again felt that the defendant's thinking was naive.The motive of ``Betrayed by KyoAni'' was too selfish, and I thought he was in the wrong place. "I did it," he said.