KyoAni Arson Suspect Learned from 2001 Attack

Kyoto, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--The suspect in the 2019 arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio used gasoline to set the fire after using a similar incident as reference, it was learned Thursday.

During questioning in the sixth hearing at Kyoto District Court, Shinji Aoba, 45, facing murder and other charges, said he learned from the arson attack against a branch of consumer finance firm Takefuji Corp., which went bust later, in the city of Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture in 2001.

As for reasons for targeting the No. 1 studio of the animation powerhouse, better known as KyoAni, in Kyoto’s Fushimi Ward, he said he “thought many people would die” when the building where many people were working was attacked.

In addition to gasoline, he brought six knives to the crime scene because he was bracing for being attacked after pouring gasoline or stopped by someone, he noted.

Aoba also said he felt sympathy for former death-row inmate Tomohiro Kato, who carried out a stabbing spree in Tokyo’s busy Akihabara district in 2008.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]