243

Japan: Man sentenced to death for Kyoto anime fire which killed 36 (www.bbc.com)

submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more.

The incident, one of Japan's deadliest in recent decades, killed mostly young artists and shocked the anime world.

Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his lawyers had sought a lighter sentence on grounds of "mental incompetence".

Judges rejected this however, ruling that Aoba knew what he was doing.

"I have determined that the defendant was not mentally insane or weak at the time of the crime," Chief Judge Masuda said on Thursday at Kyoto District Court.

top 37 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] Marsupial@quokk.au 41 points 9 months ago

Japanese stans are next level crazy. Like the stories of idols being murdered and shit by crazed stalkers, I don’t get what breeds this level of extreme response to media.

[-] GONADS125@feddit.de 20 points 9 months ago

The incels in western society are just as unhinged and bizarre imo. I'm not sure how prevalent they are in Europe, but they're very much a problem here in the US and Canada.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 12 points 9 months ago

In Japan a lot of idols aren't allowed to be seen as being in relationships... it's really fucking skeevy.

[-] TwinTusks@bitforged.space 4 points 9 months ago

In Japan a lot of idols aren’t allowed to be seen as being in relationships

Not just Japan, is all Asia. One member of a female korean group said something to the effect of the fans want them sexy and unavaliable.

[-] 3laws@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Biased local/national sensationalist news and far-right culture... mostly.

[-] doctorcrimson@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

I don't think he was a fan per se, he accused the studio of plagiarism.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 33 points 9 months ago

Shortening that to "Anime Fire" in the title was an awful choice by the BBC.

[-] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago

I think they just forgot to capitalize the A. Whoops.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 9 points 9 months ago

In all seriousness, they could've just said "studio fire".

[-] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

To be fair, BBC is also an awful choice of shortening in time of the adult internet ;)

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Though the BBWs are pretty fond of getting their news there.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 9 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more.

Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his lawyers had sought a lighter sentence on grounds of "mental incompetence".

"I have determined that the defendant was not mentally insane or weak at the time of the crime," Chief Judge Masuda said on Thursday at Kyoto District Court.

In July 2019, he burst into the studio during a work day, splashing petrol on the ground floor and setting it alight while repeatedly shouting "Drop dead".

Families of the victims were seen in the court room, with many visibly emotional as the judge read out the details of Aoba's crime, NHK reported.

The KyoAni studio in Kyoto is a beloved institution, known for producing films and graphic novels that are well-regarded by fans as well as critics - including K-On!

The original article contains 534 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] cheeseburger@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 months ago

From the article:

Aoba himself suffered burns to over 90% of his body in the fire,

and

Those convicted typically remain on death row for years, or even decades. The death penalty is conducted by hanging.

That's going to be an agonizing wait for the hangman.

[-] lapommedeterre@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

They usually do hangings, right?

[-] doctorcrimson@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They apprehended him in May 2020 and he pled guilty in September 2023, maybe it took so long because of the burns?

He supposedly accused the studio for plagiarizing his work for the creation of Sound! Euphonium 響け! ユーフォニアム which is surprising to me because I expected something a lot more personal than that. The poor standards of living and working conditions for anime production leaves a lot to be desired, I expected him to just be a disgruntled employee.

[+] stown@sedd.it -39 points 9 months ago

Huh, I swear I was always told that America was the only modern Democratic country to still use the death sentence. It's a "fact" that people bring up whenever there is a high-profile death-row case, like right now.

[-] aleq@lemmy.world 48 points 9 months ago

Anything happens anywhere in the world.

The US: "Oh, this is about me!"

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

To be fair, it's quite generous to call a political system based on a 1700s document "modern"..

[-] Scrongle@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

That's a peculiar statement, considering the U.S. is essentially the most recent major nation (and one of very few) to be formed and grown, about as far from the intense pressures of previously established cultural or governmental influences (both from within, or from surrounding territories) as you can get, without leaving the planet.

...If that's not considered relatively modern when compared to the rest of the world, what is?

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

the U.S. is essentially the most recent major nation

Which isn't saying much at all since all other major nations are at least a thousand years old.

What IS saying a lot, though, is that the US constitution is the oldest national constitution still in effect bar none.

about as far from the intense pressures of previously established cultural or governmental influences (both from within, or from surrounding territories) as you can get, without leaving the planet.

Bullshit. The US is profoundly influenced by Christian norms and traditions for better and especially for worse. It's one of the most conservative countries in the West both politically and culturally.

If that's not considered relatively modern when compared to the rest of the world, what is?

Scandinavia, for example 🤷

[-] yesman@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

That's a particular statement, considering the US has the oldest democratic constitution in the world.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

South America and Africa are extremely confused right now...

Also, if you don't want to look that far abroad look at literally either of America's neighbors. Canada didn't finish growing in size until 1949 and formed a province as recently as 1999. Mexico has technically been a continuous nation since 1810 but it's worn a lot of different costumes in that time, including being ruled by a Habsburg.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago

In terms of countries it absolutely is

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Is it really, though?

Most modern countries don't consider dissent terrorism, most modern countries don't have mass shootings every week if not every day and in most countries, the color of your skin doesn't determine whether you're likely to survive a traffic stop.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

"Modern" doesn't mean "something I like", it means it was created recently. So yes, it really is modern.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world -3 points 9 months ago

No, it means that it functions in modern ways. The US constitution is the oldest one in the world still in use and US politics and culture are both heavily influenced by bronze age myths aka Abrahamic religion.

"Modern" doesn't mean "something I like"

That's probably the most ridiculous strawman I've seen in 2024, well done!

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

We have a long way to go in 2024 haha... and sorry, but you didn't refute it being modern, you simply listed things about it that you didn't like, and called those not being modern. That wasn't a strawman, I was literally just responding to what you said. If your beliefs are different then you should have chosen your words more carefully. This response is a great step up because it actually asserts something about the age of the constitution and its beliefs.

And that assertion is actually correct-- the US is over 200 years old when the rest of the existing democracies are mostly around 50. That's still a short timescale when we're talking about nations, but when referring to democracies in particular... yeah, it could use some updating.

[-] Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net 0 points 9 months ago

Atlanta isn't a country, which ones are you talking about?

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Atlanta is far from the only place in the US that fits that description.

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

The only modern *Western country

[-] TwinTusks@bitforged.space 2 points 9 months ago

To be honest, I am genuinely surprised Japan has a death penalty.

[-] stown@sedd.it 1 points 9 months ago

That was the point of my comment as well.

this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024

243 points (98.0% liked)

World News

38978 readers

1365 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Recommendations

How to spot Misinformation and Propaganda

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

quinten@lemmy.world

NewsAutoMod@lemmy.world

jordanlund@lemmy.world

Tenthrow@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

lemmyAtom@lemmy.world

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world