Japan gov't offers support to Kyoto anime studio, arsonist to be arrested for murder

The Japanese government on Monday said it will offer support to the company of a popular animation studio in Kyoto that suffered a deadly arson attack earlier this month.

A nonpartisan group of lawmakers promoting animation production has called on the government to help Kyoto Animation Co., as so many talented animators were killed in the arson attack on its studio on July 18.

The lawmakers have urged the government to do all it can to assist the studio and to help the surviving staff to rebuild the much-loved studio.

An aerial photo shows the fire site burning with fire in Kyoto, Japan on July 18, 2019. [Photo: IC]

"We'd like to have related ministries and agencies deal with the issue after thoroughly hearing about the situation regarding compensation for injured employees and rebuilding of the management," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press briefing on the matter Monday.

Suga, Japan's top government spokesperson, added that the trade ministry and other government departments will offer support to the studio to receive donations from at home and abroad.

The lawmakers have suggested that the government provide some tax relief to Kyoto Animation Co. for the donations they have received, which have already topped 600 million yen (about 5.5 million U.S. dollars).

On July 18, Shinji Aoba, 41, is suspected to have spread and ignited gasoline at the studio in Uji, Kyoto, which left 35 people dead and dozens more injured.

Aoba is still being treated in hospital for severe burns he sustained in the attack, but will be served with an arrest warrant for murder upon his recovery, investigators said Monday.

The suspect, who resides in Saitama near Tokyo, has had a number of books and DVDs confiscated from his home as evidence, as the case continues, local media said Monday.

After arriving in Kyoto on July 15, he is believed to have spent three days in the vicinity of Kyoto Animation's headquarters and locations associated with the studio's television anime series "Sound! Euphonium," a story about a high school music club in Uji.

After entering the studio on July 18 with two canisters filled with gasoline and shouting "Die!" he went on to douse the inside and possibly some of the victims in the flammable liquid before setting it on fire.

Firefighters battled the blaze at the three-story building, one of the worst seen in Japan in recent history, from around 10:30 a.m. until it was finally extinguished at 6:20 a.m. the following morning.

Firefighters and police said at the time that the majority of those killed in the inferno were found on a stairway that led to the building's roof.

They said that multiple victims were found collapsed upon each other on the stairs connecting the third floor to the rooftop.

The door to the flat rooftop, the only lifeline and escape route for the victims, was closed when the firefighters arrived, they said.

The apparent motive behind the arson attack on the studio, at which the average age of the employees is just 33-years-old, may have been down to a personal grudge.

The suspected arsonist told investigators he torched the studio as he believed they had plagiarized his ideas.