OSAKA (Kyodo) A 47-year-old man pleaded innocent Monday to charges of arson and murder at a video parlor in Osaka last year that killed 16 people and injured four others.
"I did not commit arson," Kazuhiro Ogawa said in the first session of his Osaka District Court trial over the predawn fire at the Shishashitsu Cats Nanba shop in Naniwa Ward last Oct. 1.
Ogawa, who is unemployed and hails from Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, initially admitted to the allegations, saying he wanted to kill himself because of his hardships, investigative sources said.
The indictment says Ogawa, who was using one of the parlor's private viewing rooms, set fire to tissue paper on a bag containing newspapers and other items, starting a conflagration that spread through the establishment.
Police sources have said Ogawa gambled away his retirement allowance and was suffering under numerous debts.
He retired from an electric parts factory a few years ago. After gambling away his money, his wife divorced him and his debts snowballed, the sources said.
Ogawa was arrested outside the video parlor after being questioned by a police officer. Most of the fatalities occurred in the parlor's small private rooms. Such shops are often stocked with porn but are also used by people who need a cheap place to spend the night.
