Japanese police yesterday formally arrested a man on suspicion of an arson attack on an animation studio in Kyoto in July last year that killed 36 people, a police spokesman said.
The horrifying attack on the well-known Kyoto Animation anime studio was the deadliest violent crime in decades in famously safe Japan, and shocked the country.
Shinki Aoba allegedly broke into the building, “scattered gasoline on the ground floor, set fire to it,” and killed 14 men and 22 women, a police spokesman said, confirming his arrest on suspicion of murder.
Aoba, 42, was detained in the immediate aftermath of the attack, which also injured dozens of people.
However, he was hospitalized with serious burns.
He was reportedly unconscious for weeks and police held off charging him until his condition stabilized.
No motive for the attack has been established, with reports claiming Aoba shouted “drop dead” before the assault.
He has reportedly confessed to the arson and there have been claims that he accused the studio of stealing his work.
In addition to the charge of murdering the 36 people who died in the attack, Aoba faces attempted murder charges over the 34 people who sustained injuries.
He is also charged with possessing knives on the street without legitimate reasons, in violation of Japan’s strict laws on weapons.
Aoba is still recovering from his burns, but police have prepared medical treatment facilities at a police station to which he would be sent, Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) reported.
Many of those killed in the blaze were young, including a 21-year-old woman.
STILL SUFFERING
Parents of some of the victims told local media that they were still suffering the devastating loss of their loved ones.
“I think about her very often,” Shinichi Tsuda, whose daughter, Sachie, was killed in the fire, told NHK. “I think about her at the time of the incident, wondering how painful it would have been for her.”
Yasuo Takemoto, who lost his son, Yasuhiro, a director at the studio, said the 10 months since the attack had “passed quickly.”
“But it doesn’t mean that we are cured 10 months later. Yasuhiro won’t come back,” he told NHK.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion