JAPAN: Fire to keep himself warm cost over ¥500m in damages

YAMAGUCHI (The Japan Times - Kyodo), March 27, 2008: The Yamaguchi District Court sentenced a 76-year-old man Wednesday to 10 years in prison for setting JR Shimonoseki Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture ablaze in January 2006. In sentencing Kyuemon Fukuda, presiding Judge Keizo Yamamoto said, "It was a shortsighted crime because the defendant started the fire after he was ejected from the station, where he had gone to keep out of the cold after he was released from prison." He started the blaze on January 7, 2006, just days after he finished serving time for attempted arson in Kitakyushu. "He caused damage in excess of ¥500 million and train services were severely disrupted," the judge said. Copyright The Japan Times Ltd