KOBE (Kyodo) A man charged with torching his home in Kasai, Hyogo Prefecture, admitted Tuesday he did it out of anger because his mother threw away some of his plastic figures from the "Gundam" animation franchise.
"Plastic figures of Gundam are like my life partners. I thought I would rather burn to death with them than have them thrown away," said Yoshifumi Takabe, 30, who pleaded guilty as his trial began at the Kobe District Court. Nobody was injured in the blaze.
Takabe told the court he piled 200 to 300 boxes of Gundam plastic figures up to near the ceiling in his room.
He is accused of setting fire to the wooden two-story house where he lived with his mother, grandmother and younger brother, at around 2:10 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2009.
His mother was in the house but escaped without injury.