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Japan Animation Studio Chief Mourns Bright, Young Staff

Reuters

   KYOTO - Many victims of an arson attack on an animation studio in the
   western Japanese city of Kyoto were young with bright futures, some
   joining only in April, the company president said Saturday, as the
   death told climbed to 34.

   Thursday's attack on Kyoto Animation, famous in Japan and overseas for
   its series and movies, was the worst mass killing in two decades in a
   country with some of the world's lowest crime rates.

   Company president Hideaki Hatta said many of the victims were young
   women.

   "Some of them joined us just in April. And on the eighth of July, I
   gave them a small, but their first, bonus," he said. "People who had a
   promising future lost their lives. I don't know what to say. Rather
   than feeling anger, I just don't have words," Hatta said.

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