In Japana man has been accused of setting fire to his apartment and putting third parties at risk. The subject, identified as addicted to making donations to live streamers through a streaming platform, Started out spending 80,000 yen (over $596) and ended up spending over 250,000 yen (almost $1,900) a month.
In December 2021, a fire was reported in a two-story wooden apartment in Tokyo shortly after 3am. The fire was quickly extinguished by firefighters and a man was rescued from the room where the fire had started. The subject, who was identified as a 53-year-old office worker who lived alone and was unconscious at the time of rescue, was able to recover from his injuries. No other person was affected by the accident.
At his first trial held on April 24, the 53-year-old defendant admitted to the charges saying: “i think i did nothing wrong». In fact, the court shared the transcript of the comments made during the trial, since they indicate that the subject himself set fire to his room with the intention of committing suicide.
- When did you start using the live streaming app?
- Around October 2020.
- Why did you start using these services?
- It became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had to stay home because going out to work or eat could make me sick. I was looking on my smartphone and I came across the app.
- Before you started consuming live broadcasts (streamers), what made you anxious?
- I was worried that I would not be able to stop using the app, and that I would eventually run out of money.
- You mean you didn’t want to owe money?
- That, or he did not want to continue living if the debt increased. My situation was only getting worse. My income was only about 250,000 yen, but I paid about 84,000 yen for rent (including parking) and another 37,000 yen for phone services (including for my ex-wife and son). In the months prior to the incident, I was spending around 80,000 yen a month donating to streamers, and my savings were drying up.
- How did you spend money on that app?
- Making donations to the person who was broadcasting live, and he held a certain position depending on how much money he accumulated in donations. Practically that is the salary of the person who broadcasts live.
- And what did you earn with these donations?
- There is an internal ranking among viewers, so if you donate a lot, you will appear much higher and you will be mentioned constantly by the live streamer. For me, that was reason enough.
- However, 80,000 yen a month really is quite a bit of money, don’t you think?
- Well, there is no limit to the amount of money you can donate.
- Weren’t you worried about running out of money?
- When I was young, I had the opportunity to work overtime, and depending on the month, I would earn a lot of money, so I had a lot of money saved to spend on whatever. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of available jobs plummeted.
- Besides you, nine other people live in the apartment complex. A 90-year-old woman is disabled, and she was unable to move even after noticing the fire. Didn’t she think of that before deciding to burn down her room?
- I’m so sorry, but I was so focused on killing myself that I wasn’t really thinking about anything else.
- There are many ways to commit suicide, why would you decide to burn yourself alive?
- He had some possessions that he did not want others to see. A fire would end everything.
- Can you be more specific? What kind of possessions?
- A DVD.
- Are you referring to a pornographic movie?
- That’s how it is.
- Why would you care?
- I don’t want my parents to know.
At the time of the incident, the defendant’s elderly mother was alone caring for her father, who is in a wheelchair, and her brother, who is severely mentally disabled. Although only part of the floor (less than one square meter) was burned in the defendant’s room, the walls and doors were burned, and the window glass was broken, which cost 6 million yen for repairs (about of 45 thousand dollars).
However, the owner did not press charges for any of the damage. According to the indictment, most of the repair costs were covered by insurance and the defendant’s mother paid for the removal of his property. Also, she considered that he was having a hard time, considering that he had lost his family and had no one left in his life.
The defendant’s mother, who appeared as a witness, apologized to the residents and the owner, and expressed her comments about her son. The prosecution requested a sentence of five years in prison, and the subject ended up being sentenced to three years in prison and a suspended sentence of five years (that is, it will only be effective if he commits another crime). The Tokyo District Court condemned the events, stating: “It cannot be denied that there was a possibility of a catastrophe that endangered the lives of the residents of the building and the material property of the owner. However, the loneliness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the feeling of emptiness that he tried to fill with online streamers, and the vague anxiety about his declining income, are understood as probable causes of his actions.».
