Kazuhiro Ogawa

Ogawa was born in 1962 in Japan and resided in Osaka at the time of the offense. Public records indicate that he lived alone and relied on government welfare assistance for income. He had no stable long‑term employment and experienced ongoing financial hardship.

In the years prior to the arson attack, Ogawa reportedly suffered from depression and social isolation. Investigators later stated that he expressed feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness during police questioning. There is no public record of him receiving sustained psychiatric treatment prior to the incident.

Ogawa was not known to have close family or community support. According to court records, he frequented low‑cost accommodations and adult entertainment establishments, including video arcades that offered private viewing rooms used by some customers as overnight lodging.

No prior convictions for violent crime were widely reported before the 2008 incident. However, prosecutors later argued that his prolonged personal distress and unstable living conditions contributed to the circumstances leading up to the crime.

In the early hours of 1 October 2008, a fatal arson attack occurred at an adult video arcade in the Nanba district of Osaka.

At approximately 3:00 a.m., a fire broke out inside the establishment, known as Cats, which operated as a private‑room adult video arcade. The business contained 32 small individual rooms, each equipped with a cot, and was commonly used by customers as an inexpensive overnight accommodation. At the time of the fire, 26 customers and three employees were inside the building.

The layout of the facility consisted of narrow hallways with a single exit through the reception area. The building was not equipped with fire sprinklers or smoke ventilation systems. When the fire alarm sounded, the store’s manager reportedly turned it off, believing it to be a false alarm.

The fire spread rapidly, filling the enclosed space with smoke. Many occupants were unable to escape their rooms and were overcome by carbon monoxide. Approximately 120 firefighters responded to the scene, and the blaze was fully extinguished after about 90 minutes.

Initially, 15 people died as a direct result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Nine others were injured, several critically. On 14 October 2008, one of the injured victims, Hirokatsu Igawa, died in hospital from complications related to smoke inhalation, bringing the final death toll to 16.

Ogawa was identified as the suspect and taken into custody shortly after the incident. During police questioning, he stated that he had intended to die in the fire, describing the act as a suicide attempt. He told investigators that he fled the building after becoming frightened as smoke spread through the room.