OSAKA, JAPAN — Japan is famous for its peaceful citizenry – and the distinctive ways in which members of that citizenly violently snap when they reach their limits. According to authorities, at 3:00 am this morning, Osaka time, one such individual reached precisely that limit — and torched an all-night adult video viewing salon, killing 15. An additional 10 people were injured, four of them critically.
The Kyodo news agency reports that 46-year-old Kazuhiro Ogama confessed to intentionally setting the blaze by lighting a newspaper in one of the viewing rooms, because the unemployed mand was “fed up with life.” He had initially insisted that the conflagration was an accident brought about by falling asleep while smoking.
Shops such as Cats are popular in spite of police action to close commercial sex shops in large cities, and provide a place for drunken working men to sleep if they miss their final commuter train home. In addition to offering pornography, the shops are less expensive than a hotel, with many offering showers and inexpensive food and beverages, as well as allowing socializing and cigarette smoking.
Unfortunately for those inside of the shop when the fire started, survivors report that Cats had no functioning fire alarms, emergency lighting or exits, and customers were not provide with emergency instructions from the three available staff members during the evacuation.
Firefighters fought the blaze for an hour and a half and say that of the 32 viewing booths available in the establishment, 26 were occupied at the time. All of the deceased suffered carbon monoxide poisoning or inhalation burns.
A 37-year-old man who managed to survive the inferno observed that “The layout is so complicated that people visiting for the first time would have found it difficult to escape.”
A 2001 fire at the Super Loose pub in Tokyo’s rough Kabukicho district killed 44 people, including 12 women, in what is believed to have been an arson deemed to be the worst fire in Japan since World War II. The building was found to have no fire doors or smoke control systems, as well as blocked emergency stairs.
Given the country’s enormous adult entertainment industry, this most recent fire has drawn much-needed attention to safety standards for brick-and-mortar buildings offering erotic products and services.
