Factbox: Recent mass killings in Japan
TOKYO (Reuters) - Thirty-three people were confirmed killed in an arson attack on an animation studio in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto on Thursday, making it the nation's worst mass killing in 18 years.
Following is a list of mass murders in Japan in recent years.
- Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult carried out a sarin nerve agent attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 13 people, injuring at least 5,800 and shattering the country's myth of public safety.
- In 2001, eight children were stabbed to death at their school in Osaka by a former janitor.
- Later that year, 44 people died in a fire in a commercial building in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district known for its bars and hostess clubs. Arson was suspected.
- Seven people were killed in 2008 when a man drove a truck into a crowd and began stabbing people in Tokyo's electronics and "anime" district of Akihabara.
- Also in 2008, 16 people were killed in an arson attack on an Osaka video shop where customers watched DVDs.
- A knife-wielding man broke into a facility for the disabled in a small town near Tokyo in 2016 and killed 19 patients.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Robert Birsel)
