Suspected Japan Arsonist a Reclusive, Quarrelsome Gamer, Neighbor Says

A woman prays in front of a row of flowers placed for victims of the torched Kyoto Animation building in Kyoto, Japan, on July 20, 2019. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

OMIYA, Japan—The man suspected of killing 34 people in an arson attack in Japan lived alone, hundreds of kilometers from the torched Kyoto Animation studio, where he played video games non-stop and had “terrified” his neighbor just days earlier.

Police, on July 20, issued an arrest warrant for 41-year-old Shinji Aoba, suspected of causing Japan’s worst mass killing in two decades on Thursday when he went to the studio in western Japan, poured fuel around the entrance and shouted “Die” as he set the building ablaze, according to public broadcaster NHK.