Suspect in Japan anime studio arson reportedly had grudge

The man suspected of setting ablaze a beloved Japanese animation studio, killing 34 people, was raging about theft and witnesses and media reported he had a grudge against the company, as questions arose why such mass killings keep happening in the country.

Police only have said the suspect Shinji Aoba, 41, who is hospitalised with severe burns and unable to talk, is from near Tokyo and did not work for the studio, Kyoto Animation.

Japanese broadcaster NHK said the death toll rose to 34 on Saturday after one of the injured died in a hospital.

Aoba was meanwhile transferred to another hospital specializing in treating burns.

Footage showed medics carrying Aoba on a stretcher, connected to multiple tubes and part of his exposed skin swollen and pink. He was not moving, suggesting he was still unconscious.

NHK and other media, quoting an unnamed source, said that Aoba spent 3 years in prison for robbing a convenience store in 2012 and lived on government support.

The man told police that he set the fire because he thought "(Kyoto Animation) stole novels," according to Japanese media. It was unclear if he had contacted the studio earlier.

The company founded in 1981 and better known as KyoAni made a mega-hit anime series about high school girls and trained aspirants to the craft.

The shocking attack left another 34 people injured, some critically. It drew an outpouring of grief for the dead and injured, most of them workers at the studio.

Kyoto prefectural police chief Hideto Ueda solemnly laid flowers at the site, now a charcoal shell, vowing for the utmost in the investigation to find motives behind the attack, which he described as "unprecedented and unforgivable".

While shooting deaths are rare in Japan, the country has had a series of high-profile killings in recent years. Less than two months ago, a man described as a social recluse, or "hikikomori", stabbed a number of private school children at a bus stop outside Tokyo, killing two people and wounding 17 before killing himself.

In 2016, a former employee at a home for the disabled allegedly killed 19 people and injured more than 20.

Nobuo Komiya, a Rissho University criminology professor, calls the attacks "suicidal terrorism", in which attackers typically see themselves as losers and target their anger on the society, often those who seem happy and successful.

"Feeling angry at people who they think are winners, they tend to choose privileged people as targets," Komiya said. "They think they have nothing to lose, they don't care if they get caught or if they die."
"Japan shouldn't be complacent about its safety anymore. We should follow the US and Europe and do more for risk management."