Disaster Kyoto Animation studio set on fire - 35 Dead, Many Injured

AnOminous · May 8, 2020

Crazedking said:
Doesnt japan death row basically keeps them in the dark as to when they will die? That shit would be even worse than life imprisonement. Having a sword hanging constantly over your head would drive people nuts.

Yes, and it can take 20 years or more to get around to it. They just drag you out of your cell and kill you one day. You get a last meal but I'm not sure how much appetite you'd have under the circumstances. They tell you in the morning.

RomanesEuntDomus · May 8, 2020

AnOminous said:
Yes, and it can take 20 years or more to get around to it. They just drag you out of your cell and kill you one day. You get a last meal but I'm not sure how much appetite you'd have under the circumstances. They tell you in the morning.

It depends on the case, though. Shoko Asahara, leader of the Aum-Sect and responsible fore the Sarin gas attack on Tokyo of 1995 was killed rather recently, but that had to do with an aspect of Japanese justice, where they can only act out the death penalty for a group of people, once everyone has exhausted their right to fight it in court. After it has been verified for everyone, it can be done and then it might happen pretty quickly.

In this case, they might act sooner, but his injuries seem to stall any progress.

Even if his mental state prevents an execution, Japanese jails are almost feudal in how they are run. The cells are cold and pretty much contain nothing but a bed and a toilet. The prisoner has to adhere to a very, very rigid code of conduct (for instance, he has to spend most os his day sitting in the middle of his cell, I have read) and if he doesn't follow the rules, he won't get "rewards" such as a warm blanket during winter.
For many regular inmates, I would deem this inhumane, but for this piece of shit, can't really say I have much of an issue with it.

AnOminous · May 8, 2020

RomanesEuntDomus said:
Even if his mental state prevents an execution, Japanese jails are almost feudal in how they are run. The cells are cold and pretty much contain nothing but a bed and a toilet. The prisoner has to adhere to a very, very rigid code of conduct (for instance, he has to spend most os his day sitting in the middle of his cell, I have read) and if he doesn't follow the rules, he won't get "rewards" such as a warm blanket during winter.
For many regular inmates, I would deem this inhumane, but for this piece of shit, can't really say I have much of an issue with it.

The death penalty is really rare in Japan and unlike in the U.S., limited to the most heinous of crimes. It seems reasonable that the conditions of confinement as well as the ultimate result are all punitive, at least if you accept the general premise of capital punishment at all.

RomanesEuntDomus · May 8, 2020

AnOminous said:
The death penalty is really rare in Japan and unlike in the U.S., limited to the most heinous of crimes. It seems reasonable that the conditions of confinement as well as the ultimate result are all punitive, at least if you accept the general premise of capital punishment at all.

These harsh conditions aren't limited to those that receive capital punishment. What makes this especially bad is that the Japanese jurisdiction isn't particularly averse to pressing confessions out of suspects with white torture. Funny thing about that, they'll hammer you with questions and accusations for 3 days nonstop, without allowing you to take a break or sleep, to get a confession and when you retract that confession on basis of you being tortured later on, the judge will punish you harder for trying to play innocent.

It's something that anime-speds easily overlook. Japan has some neat pop culture and it's a great place to spend your vacation in, but holy fucking shit are some aspects of that society rotten to the core.

Happy Fish · May 8, 2020

HOMO FOR LIFE said:
Can you blame them. I wouldn't want to be near kyoani fans either.

I have a feeling that won't stop them no matter what is built in its place.

The Demon Pimp of Razgriz · May 8, 2020

Some good news: Most of those injured in the fire, who didn't die while hospitalized, have returned to work:

Over 80% of Kyoto Animation employees injured in arson attack have returned to work

alternate link to Sora News article, which is basically the same

It also turns out only one person in the entire building of 70 people managed to escape injury. Unfortunately, three of the survivors had to take a leave of absence after returning, and a number of employees have resigned from the studio. Personally, i can't imagine what its like to return to a work place after so many of the colleagues you used to see every day died so horribly, not to mention any injuries that survivors would have have incurred (I'm reminded of the person who was so injured they had to have their legs amputated).

All in all, 27 of the survivors out of 33 have returned to work.

Oh Shit I'm Sorry · May 8, 2020

AnOminous said:
Yes, and it can take 20 years or more to get around to it. They just drag you out of your cell and kill you one day. You get a last meal but I'm not sure how much appetite you'd have under the circumstances. They tell you in the morning.

I got curious and looked up the fate of the Akibahara massacre guy and he was sentenced to death back in both 11 and 12 (then had the sentence upheld in 15) but that's the last time anything's been heard about him. It's also worth noting his defense tried to downplay the punishment with the mental illness angle just like Aoba's is and failed so it wouldn't be shocking to see it do so again here.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/02/02/national/crime-legal/death-sentence-confirmed-akihabara-rampage-killer/

BBC article I skimmed states Japan also likes to bundle their executions together in groups of 2 or 3 at a time, I guess for maximum efficiency.

I also discovered there's apparently an incel wiki: https://incels.wiki/w/Tomohiro_Kato

din_far · May 8, 2020

RomanesEuntDomus said:
It's something that anime-speds easily overlook. Japan has some neat pop culture and it's a great place to spend your vacation in, but holy fucking shit are some aspects of that society rotten to the core.

And due to the japanese mentality of always doing your job to the best of your ability, the courts assume the police/prosecutor have turned every stone and done everything correctly and properly, leading to a 99% conviction rate. Essentially, if you do something illegal in japan, don't get caught because you will go to jail.

haurchefant · May 8, 2020

Reminds me of a story I heard on Something Awful about a goon that got caught selling weed. The police hauled him in for questioning and he just refused to confess. Might not have even talked to them, gave them the silent treatment.

The fact that he was an American probably gave him some protection but apparently his flat refusal to speak really set the police in a tizzy, they had no idea what to do with someone who refused to open his mouth and confess. Supposedly they deported him but he was never formally charged because they couldn't prove anything.

thx1138 · May 8, 2020

mr.moon1488 said:
Kinda curious, but was it ever found out if his shit was actually plagiarized? Even if true he should still hang for this shit.

What I heard was he flipped out because of an easter egg they put in one of the cartoons that he thought was meant to mock him. It was some Charlie Manson level "They put a special message there just for me" shit.

RomanesEuntDomus · May 8, 2020

haurchefant said:
Reminds me of a story I heard on Something Awful about a goon that got caught selling weed. The police hauled him in for questioning and he just refused to confess. Might not have even talked to them, gave them the silent treatment.

The fact that he was an American probably gave him some protection but apparently his flat refusal to speak really set the police in a tizzy, they had no idea what to do with someone who refused to open his mouth and confess. Supposedly they deported him but he was never formally charged because they couldn't prove anything.

The Japanese police is a bit more restrained with people from abroad, but that still doesn't mean you can lay back and relax.

I think if you're only guilty of consuming the wacky tobacky, they might go easy on you: Throw you in jail for quite some time and then eventually send you back home, banning you from entering the country for a decade or so.
It's something that usually gets the ambassador of that nation involved, too, and he might speed things up, so you don't spend too much time in a Japanese prison - if at all.
Japan, like most Asian countries, is really hard on drugs due to the Opium Wars in China, so if you are caught smuggling that stuff... now that's gonna be some fun times.

When you do get caught in something drug related, the ambassador can run a few favors, make a few threats even and get you out a lot quicker... unless you're from Germany. That guy has no intention to waste a perfectly good favor or souring his relations for a little junky, so you're up shit creek without a paddle.

din_far said:
And due to the japanese mentality of always doing your job to the best of your ability, the courts assume the police/prosecutor have turned every stone and done everything correctly and properly, leading to a 99% conviction rate. Essentially, if you do something illegal in japan, don't get caught because you will go to jail.

There's a few more issues additional to that.

Oftentimes, people buy their way out of trouble.
You got caught stealing from a store? Offer dem money, so it doesn't go to court.
Your son raped a girl? Pay her family some money to make the problem go away.
Unsurprisingly, in a society as stoic as the Japanese, having a criminal record is a bigger deal than even in western nations, so people pay whatever they can to avoid having that stigma. So a lot of smaller and medium cases don't even make it to court.

If you can't settle out of court, you can rest assured that it won't go before a judge before the police and persecution have built a very secure case against you. One of the key aspects of that is forcing a confession out of you. There's a couple of texts about parents being accused of the murder of their own children and they are pressed into confessing with white torture until they crack - at that point they'd confess that they have stolen the fire from the Olymp or the fruit of knowledge in the garden of eden.
And the judge will ask them if they aren't ashamed of themselves to cowardly rescind their confession in court.
When you've reached a point where you are brought before a judge, his verdict of declaring you guilty is almost just a matter of rubber stamping the document and the police officers will pat each other on the back for having such a great rate of solved crimes and a job well done.

And to tie this all back into the case at hand, sometimes, the mills of Japanese courts run very slowly, but they grind everything into dust that gets caught in between the wheels. The guy that burned down KyoAni will get a taste of that and I am pretty confident that he won't get away with the excuse of being mentally unstable.

Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL · May 8, 2020

Japanese courts, prisons, and their legal system function as they always have historically, meaning they don't fuck around and they will fuck you up. They don't seem to have changed much since the late 19th century, and that's only because they aren't boiling people alive or crucifying them like they used to in Japan before the benevolent Meiji Emperor decided to copy the modern and just tactics of contemporary 19th century nations like Prussia, France, and Britain.

thx1138 said:
What I heard was he flipped out because of an easter egg they put in one of the cartoons that he thought was meant to mock him. It was some Charlie Manson level "They put a special message there just for me" shit.

I thought he was pissed they plagiarized his work? Like Kyoani had a light novel submission contest where the winners got adapted into an anime, and this guy submitted one, lost, and then thought Kyoani took his ideas and made it into an anime (apparently it was Hibike Euphonium?). So he decided to burn down Kyoani's studio as revenge. It all sounds like the murder of Dimebag Darrell, where a crazy fan of his thought he stole his music and shot him dead on stage along with some other people in the audience.

There's a lot of hearsay in this case and I wouldn't be surprised if it's just shit being dripfed from the intrepid reporters of 2ch/5ch/whatever the fuck it's called now (so about as reliable as weirdos on 4chan or Kiwifarms) to the gaijin internet in the usual shitty translations and repeated as fact. AFAIK there are no official comments as to the lunatic's motive.

XYZpdq · May 8, 2020

RomanesEuntDomus said:
The Japanese police is a bit more restrained with people from abroad, but that still doesn't mean you can lay back and relax.

I think if you're only guilty of consuming the wacky tobacky, they might go easy on you: Throw you in jail for quite some time and then eventually send you back home, banning you from entering the country for a decade or so.
It's something that usually gets the ambassador of that nation involved, too, and he might speed things up, so you don't spend too much time in a Japanese prison - if at all.
Japan, like most Asian countries, is really hard on drugs due to the Opium Wars in China, so if you are caught smuggling that stuff... now that's gonna be some fun times.

iirc there's been a gaijin wrassler or two in the past few years who got popped for personal use drugs and got off with some months and banishment

The Demon Pimp of Razgriz · May 8, 2020

haurchefant said:
Reminds me of a story I heard on Something Awful about a goon that got caught selling weed. The police hauled him in for questioning and he just refused to confess. Might not have even talked to them, gave them the silent treatment.

The fact that he was an American probably gave him some protection but apparently his flat refusal to speak really set the police in a tizzy, they had no idea what to do with someone who refused to open his mouth and confess. Supposedly they deported him but he was never formally charged because they couldn't prove anything.

If you want a good idea of how utterly fucked up the Japanese legal system is, and how fucked this arsonist guy is, this video is a good primer:

AnOminous · May 8, 2020

RomanesEuntDomus said:
These harsh conditions aren't limited to those that receive capital punishment.

They have special treatment for those on death row, though, which is very harsh even as Japanese prisons go.

What makes this especially bad is that the Japanese jurisdiction isn't particularly averse to pressing confessions out of suspects with white torture.

This would be a lot worse if their cops weren't also really careful about only charging people they are practically sure are guilty, to the point they're often criticized for letting people get away with shit. And sometimes they're inexplicably lenient, like with the vermin who killed Junko Furuta.

Bender · May 8, 2020

AnOminous said:
And sometimes they're inexplicably lenient, like with the vermin who killed Junko Furuta.

Fuck you for reminding me of her. Makes me sick how many people knew but none of them reported it, and when the cops showed up they just asked "is she here?" "no" "okay, sorry for bothering you".

CDWLTY · May 8, 2020

Even over there I heard nothing in addition to what we heard on KF. They seem to have a media industry that's not as pervertedly into every last detail of a crime or horror, to the point it's seeming like they avoid talking about it altogether.

We always talk about what we would do if we went back in time and had to help re-build japan after getting nuked twice. They were a peasant culture that forcibly evolved into a pseudo modern empire, who then did the expansionist thing while the rural folk were still stuck in the past. Then the americans come in, shit on everything they know and love, make their most high, powerful, imperial majesty the Emperor look like a hobbit next to a mere general in photos. There was so much cultural change and upheaval that it seems like they haven't ever had much chance to let their identity seep in and rest, so they have a strange system of national identification that is very staid and conservative in most ways, but with this veneer of democratic, western ideals. They see criminals as traitors to humanity, so whatever they do to them is A-okay. If you're in japan, be careful. You are treated how the SJW's think illegal immigrants are treated in the U.S. Your word as testimony holds about 60% weight against a citizen's, you're likely to get carded for no reason everywhere you go, you're always suspicious, you can't have anything even vaguely weaponlike on you (like razor blades, because yankee gangbangers are all sharks). If you're dating, you're taking your visa into your own hands, at least if you break up. I've heard too many horror stories of weird exes messing up a bf.

Bender · May 8, 2020

CDWLTY said:
Even over there I heard nothing in addition to what we heard on KF. They seem to have a media industry that's not as pervertedly into every last detail of a crime or horror, to the point it's seeming like they avoid talking about it altogether.

We always talk about what we would do if we went back in time and had to help re-build japan after getting nuked twice. They were a peasant culture that forcibly evolved into a pseudo modern empire, who then did the expansionist thing while the rural folk were still stuck in the past. Then the americans come in, shit on everything they know and love, make their most high, powerful, imperial majesty the Emperor look like a hobbit next to a mere general in photos. There was so much cultural change and upheaval that it seems like they haven't ever had much chance to let their identity seep in and rest, so they have a strange system of national identification that is very staid and conservative in most ways, but with this veneer of democratic, western ideals. They see criminals as traitors to humanity, so whatever they do to them is A-okay. If you're in japan, be careful. You are treated how the SJW's think illegal immigrants are treated in the U.S. Your word as testimony holds about 60% weight against a citizen's, you're likely to get carded for no reason everywhere you go, you're always suspicious, you can't have anything even vaguely weaponlike on you (like razor blades, because yankee gangbangers are all sharks). If you're dating, you're taking your visa into your own hands, at least if you break up. I've heard too many horror stories of weird exes messing up a bf.

Format your post so it's not a wall of text and it'll be easier to read, meaning more people are likely to read it. Try using paragraphs, friendo.

Dom Cruise · May 8, 2020

RomanesEuntDomus said:
It's something that anime-speds easily overlook. Japan has some neat pop culture and it's a great place to spend your vacation in, but holy fucking shit are some aspects of that society rotten to the core.

It's true, but some aspects of American society are rotten to the core as well.

It's true of any society, that's just the world we live in.

The Demon Pimp of Razgriz · May 8, 2020

Dom Cruise said:
It's true, but some aspects of American society are rotten to the core as well.

It's true of any society, that's just the world we live in.

The difference is that Americans like to talk about what's wrong with their country ad-nauseum, no matter where they are politically (though the perceived problems may change). The Japanese pretend like their problems and issues don't exist and get defensive when people bring them up.

I'm reminded of how A Silent Voice, the Japanese manga which dealt with the bullying of a deaf Japanese girl (just because she was deaf, an unfortunately common thing in Japan) and the redemption of her bully, actually had its publication delayed because a Japanese group sued to prevent it from being published. Why you ask? Because the manga revealed a dark side to Japanese society that foreigners rarely see or hear about, and the Japanese group wanted to prevent its publication to keep Japan from looking bad. No seriously. Funnily enough, A Silent Voice later got a film adaptation from Kyoto Animation.

Disaster Kyoto Animation studio set on fire - 35 Dead, Many Injured

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