Many victims of an arson attack on a Japanese animation studio were young with bright futures, some joining only in April, the shaken company president said on Saturday, as the death toll climbed to 34. Thursday’s attack on Kyoto Animation was Japan’s worst mass killing in two decades.
Many of the victims of the attack, in the ancient capital of Kyoto, were young women, company president Hideaki Hatta said. “Some of them joined us just in April. And on the eighth of July, I gave them a small, but their first, bonus,” he said.
Young victims
Fifteen of the victims were in their 20s and 11 were in their 30s, public broadcaster NHK said. Six were in their 40s and one was at least 60. The studio had about 160 employees with an average age of 33.
Police have confirmed the identity of the suspect as Shinji Aoba, but have declined to comment further.
Aoba had been convicted of robbery in the past and is suspected of carrying out the arson attack because he believed his novel had been plagiarised, Japanese media have said. But Mr. Hatta, the company president, said he had no idea about any plagiarism claim, adding he had not seen any correspondence from the suspect.
