Seven years after 6 people died in Kitakyushu apartment fire, defendant accused of murder goes to first trial

A jury trial will begin on October 5th at the Kokura Branch of the Fukuoka District Court for a defendant charged with murder and arson of an existing building in the 2017 fire that gutted an apartment building in Kitakyushu City's Kokura Kita Ward, killing six people. The defendant is expected to deny the charges, and the ``incidentality'' of the fire and the defendant's ``culpability'' are expected to be fully contested.

According to the indictment and other documents, Koji Inoue (58), a former resident and unemployed, entered Nakamura Soroku, a two-story wooden apartment building in Shimizu 2-chome, Kokura Kita Ward (inhabited by 16 people), at around 11:10 p.m. on May 7, 2017. He is said to have set himself on fire with something like a gas torch in front of the toilet on the first floor of a house with 14 people, burning a total area of approximately 283 square meters, killing six people and injuring five others.

Nakamura Soroku was located in a residential area near the city center in Kokura Kita Ward.

According to the real estate company that managed the property, most of the rooms are four and a half tatami mats in size, and the kitchen, toilet, and bath are shared. It was a type of property that was often seen in boarding houses during the period of high economic growth after the war, with rooms lined up on both sides of a central hallway. There was a time when it was rented out as a company dormitory.

Fukuoka Prefectural Police initially thought there was a possibility of a misfire.

However, according to investigators, a suspicious person emerged from security camera footage from the area.

Furthermore, just before the fire, a person was seen on a motorcycle coming to the apartment building with what appeared to be a gas torch in his hand, and then entering the premises on foot.

Prefectural police examined footage from more than 70 security cameras and determined that the person was Inoue. The arrest was made in September 2014, seven years after the incident.

However, there is no direct evidence such as footage or eyewitness testimony of the arson. With no DNA or fingerprints left behind, the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutors Office's Kokura branch filed charges the following October.

Meanwhile, according to his lawyer, Inoue denies the crime itself. At the time of the indictment, the defense attorney commented, ``I will work as a defense attorney to ensure that the truth is revealed at trial.''

In the ``pretrial proceedings,'' in which both the prosecution and the defense present their arguments in advance and clarify the points at issue, it has been confirmed that in addition to the ``culpability,'' there will also be a point of contention over whether the fire was arson in the first place.

In its fire investigation report, the Kitakyushu City Fire Department concluded that the cause of the fire was "unknown due to the lack of solid physical evidence and testimony."

The Kokura branch of the district public prosecutor's office said that the charges will be proven from the beginning, saying that ``the nature of the incident and the culprit are in dispute.''