Japan court to sentence man over 2019 Kyoto Animation arson attack

KYOTO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese court on Thursday is set to sentence Shinji Aoba, the man responsible for a 2019 arson attack at a Kyoto Animation studio that killed 36 people in one of Japan's worst mass murders.

Aoba, 45, admitted to lighting the blaze at the animation company's premises in Kyoto, western Japan, on July 18, 2019. In addition to the deaths, 32 employees were injured in the inferno.

As the defendant confessed to his role in the incident, the focus of the trial at the Kyoto District Court was whether he could be declared mentally competent and thus held criminally responsible.

In early remarks, the presiding judge said Aoba would not be acquitted of the crime, but the length of his sentence is yet to be made clear.

Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Aoba, while the defense argued he was mentally incompetent at the time of the attack and sought an acquittal or a lesser sentence.

Aoba told the court that he was motivated to carry out the attack in the belief that Kyoto Animation had plagiarized a novel he had entered into a contest run by the company.

While his defense argued Aoba was suffering from delusions and was in a state of diminished capacity at the time, prosecutors countered that his delusions had a limited impact on his behavior and did not constitute a reason to refrain from imposing the maximum sentence.

Kyoto Animation, often referred to as "KyoAni," is known worldwide for producing hit anime works including "K-On!" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya."

According to the indictment, Aoba entered the company's Studio 1 at around 10:30 a.m. and lit the blaze using gasoline, killing 36 and injuring 32 of the 70 employees in the building at the time.

The trial began last September, more than four