Spoggerific posted:

I've heard this time and time again on the English internet, but I haven't seen anyone post a source for it, nor have I seen it mentioned once on Japanese TV or in Japanese news. As far as I'm aware, the suspect went into the building, splashed a bucket of gasoline near the spiral staircase, possibly pouring some more from jerrycans directly on people, and then lit it up. The buildup of gasoline vapors caused an explosion, injuring the suspect and setting him on fire. He ran out of the building, with an employee chasing him. He only made it a few hundred meters away before collapsing, on account of being on fire.

The suspect did carry some knives with him, but they went unused. He was seen in the area around the studio a few times in the days preceding the arson, but as far as I'm aware he didn't do any kind of preparation like blocking stuff off.

Here's an image of the floorplan taken from Japanese TV that aired the evening of the incident. The only entrance to the building is in the bottom left of the first floor, so there aren't really any fire exits for him to block off anyway. The only staircases are the spiral staircase in the center and the regular staircase at the top; I highly doubt he managed to somehow ninja sneak his way into the building to block them off.


According to the Japanese articles I've read, the fire department has stated that the door to the roof was unlocked. What likely happened is that the initial explosion spread soot and smoke so quickly that no one could see anything at all, and after one person succumbed to smoke inhalation trying to open an unfamiliar door in pitch black, the rest of the people who tried to run to the roof probably couldn't get past their body and all passed away too. I don't know exactly how the fire code works, but Japanese buildings tend to treat regular old windows as fire exits. A lot of buildings will have emergency escape ladders stored in boxes near windows, and you're supposed to keep those areas completely clear, but I think we all know that doesn't always happen. As other posters have mentioned, though, fire codes are meant to protect from regular accidental fires, not an arson where a literal bucket full of accelerant is splashed all over the place.