#253: Psychiatric Patient Burns Down Entire Clinic Killing 25 Other Patients & Staff -2021 Osaka building fire

0:03Have you guys ever been to Japan? Have you ever been to Osaka? It's one of Japan's busiest cities. It's actually the most populated city in Japan. It's not Tokyo. It's Osaka. So just imagine how packed the streets are on a Friday morning. It's the last day of the work week, December 17th of 2021. So this is a fairly recent case, right? It's a little bit chilly, but that's not getting anybody's spirits down. They're excited for this freaking weekend. Everyone's rushing to work, ready to have their little last push before they can relax. Businesses are opening up for the day, getting ready for the busy days ahead.

0:38and one of those businesses that would have been swamped over the weekend was this small little psychiatric clinic in Osaka. And it's a relatively small clinic. It's the fourth floor of a multi-story, multi-tenant building that has eight floors in total. Eight floors and it's on the fourth. Yes, and it takes up the whole fourth floor, but it's not that big of a building. The whole building itself is less than 3 ,000 square feet. So it's a relatively small clinic. Under and above the clinic, there's cafes and clothing stores and offices. It's called the Nishi Yumeada Clinic. And even though the psychiatric clinic wasn't big, it was well known in the area.

1:18Usually people had nothing but good things to say about the place. Mainly because it was run by this doctor, Dr. Nishizawa. And he was really passionate about his work. It's one of the few psychiatric clinics in the Osaka area where they open till 10 p.m. every day. which is yeah i mean that's pretty late like not a lot of therapists not a lot of psychiatrists work till that time i mean dr nishizawa wanted to make sure that everybody got access to his help so he's thinking well if the nine to five employees get off and therapy is closed when are they going to get therapy he mainly focused on helping corporate employees just not succumb to the stress of japanese work culture which like look japanese work environment are cut throat.

2:03It's competitive, unrelenting. I mean, the pressure is astronomically high and the clinic focuses on treating patients with depression and panic disorders. So you get it. Small little clinic that just wants to give people a chance, just wants to give them some help. So December 17th, 2021, the clinic is hosting this group counseling session at 10 a.m. for patients who have taken leave off of work for mental health. They're ready to get back into the workforce, so they're going to come to these group counseling sessions and talk about what it's going to be like getting back into that work culture and how they don't become overwhelmed again.

2:39It's open to the public. Typically, anywhere between 10 to 20 patients would show up for this little meeting and the whole clinic was super busy getting ready for this event, getting the room ready. Patients are funneling in. They're filling out the forms. They're checking in with the receptionist. And right outside the building, there's owners walking their dogs before they head to work. There's people in suits rushing to catch the train. Like it's Osaka. It's a busy city. It's a regular morning. Even across the street, there's this little Italian restaurant. And the restaurant manager's name is Ryan.

3:14He's going through all the receipts from his little restaurant. And his employees are setting up because they're about to open. And he's in the back and he just hears people screaming out of nowhere. He's like, okay, this is really weird. He runs outside dropping all of the receipts behind him. His employees have this like crazy look in their eyes. Did you see? Did you see, boss? There's a fire across the street. And they're like screaming, what's happening? What's happening? He's like, what are you talking about? What fire? So he runs outside of the restaurant and all Ryan sees is like this intense smoke billowing out of the building in front of him.

3:49Like there's black smog filling up the streets. The smell of like burning plastic is so intense. It's almost animated. There's these huge bright orange flames like eating up the building in front of him. The whole street is cloaked in a layer of smoke. There's fumes everywhere. He's squinting. And he realizes that the fire is coming from the fourth floor. He's like, is that, am I seeing this right? Is that coming from the psychiatric clinic? And his employee is like, yeah, yeah, I think it is. This was a pretty emotional moment for both of them. They didn't really know the employees of the clinic that well.

4:29They didn't even know their names. But they would come for lunch breaks. They would sit down at the Italian restaurant maybe two to three times a week. So he knew them. He knew that they were very passionate about helping people. They were so friendly. They were just the nicest people. And now they were most likely dead in the fire. Crowds are gathering at the bottom of this burning building. And it said that it was oddly quiet. You know, what do you do? I mean, the fire trucks haven't arrived yet. There's no screams or anything coming from inside the building. The civilians had no idea what to do or how to even help.

5:04And then suddenly, they hear a survivor. A voice. A woman is leaning out of the sixth floor window screaming, Help me! Help me! So this part is kind of confusing because everyone is looking and the fire looks like it's contained on the fourth floor. So she couldn't have escaped? Like, what's going on? Why can't this lady on the sixth floor get out? Is maybe the stairway flooded with smoke? Like, what's going on? But everyone is waiting. The fire departments, they arrive. Nobody could really help her until they get there. And within minutes, they're pulling out this ladder, climbing up, saving the woman on the sixth floor.

5:41And it was just the most chaotic, intense scene now, once the ambulance has arrived. She was the only person that was saved from the burning building. 26 people would die from the fire what and you know how i said it was kind of eerily silent before then it became very very chaotic firefighters were dragging lifeless bodies out there trying to perform cpr outside the building to motionless figures the civilians they don't really know what to do there's reporters that are coming in and this older man he broke free from the crowd and he's stepping forward and he's crying out to everyone. Please, my son, please, my son, my son owns the clinic.

6:22Please, where is my son? He's not picking up his phone. Everyone looked up at the clinic. The fire had been put out at this point. The windows were broken and they could see inside. And all you can see are the charred interiors, like the walls are burned. They don't know how to tell this old man that his son probably won't ever be picking up his phone ever again. So there's a lot of reasons why a fire could start. Gas leaks, lithium batteries exploding, landlords cutting corners, buildings not being up to code. But at this point in the timeline, it was less about that and more about getting everyone from inside the building to the nearest hospital to try and save their lives.

7:02A man was brought in with the group. He was unconscious from the fire, but he was still alive. The hospital staff there They're trying to save his life. I mean, it's just pure stress. And in their attempt to save his life, you know, they're doing their protocol. They're emptying his pockets. And they kind of look at each other. Inside of his pocket, he had two cans of tear gas, a pocket knife. And they find out that near his body, there was a melted lighter found. They realized that the man that they were trying to save was the culprit. He was the one that had set the fire and had just taken the lives of dozens of people.

8:02as always full show notes are available at rotten mingle podcast.com i actually worked with a japanese researcher for this case to get as much of the information as possible but with international cases, there's always a chance that things are lost in translation. Some paths of research are left undiscovered. So please let me know if you have any additional information on this case below in the comments. And, side note, we have an exciting Rotten Mango merch drop tomorrow, Thursday, April 20th, 1pm Eastern Time. This is part of the collection. I don't know if you guys... My fiancé drew this himself.

8:35It says, bada bing, bada boom, and it has a Rotten Mango in the middle. and we also have a different Rotten Mango one that we worked with Fanjoy with and it's the hoodie in that collection is so comfortable. I mean to just throw it on I wore it on a 16-hour plane ride to South Korea and I slept like a baby. I like to wear all my stuff super oversized but make sure to check the link in the description for when they drop. If you love it it's a great way to support the channel and we will be matching. So with that being said let's get into the story. The fire lasted for 30 minutes. There were over 70 trucks, fire trucks and ambulances lined up.

9:09Reporters are rushing to the scene. I mean, it's pure chaos. The building was just minutes from one of Japan's busiest transportation stations, the Osaka station. So it was pretty easy for people to stop by and see what the commotion was about. A shop owner across the street told a reporter while he was shaking his head, You know, fires are really scary. It takes away everything. a thief can take away a few things but a fire it takes everything he was right in a different part of Osaka a woman named Nobuko was starting her day she's eating breakfast with her son and she's reading these breaking news headlines breaking news fire in Osaka psychiatric clinic and she just felt this like gut punch in her stomach she tried to think okay no there's so many psychiatric clinics here in the city like there's no way.

10:00She clicks on the article. She keeps reading and she realizes that her nightmares are coming true. This is where her brother works. This is her brother's clinic. She runs out of the house with her little baby and starts calling her brother's wife. The wife picks up and she just says, we're already on our way. They hang up and Nobuku said it, it was weird. I mean, it felt like life was in slow motion trying to get to her brother's clinic. Everyone in the city is just walking around like it's a good Friday morning. How is it a good Friday morning right now? Her life is crumbling. It just didn't even make sense.

10:35She runs to the psychiatric clinic and it's a soon-to-be crime scene. She starts going from police officer to firefighter begging them, please, I'm Dr. Nishizawa's sister. He owns this clinic. Please, can you just tell me if he's okay? Nobody could say anything. That night, she would finally see her brother. not at home not at the hospital but in a morgue she said that his eyes were closed and he looked he looked like he was taking a nap he looked so peaceful and perfect she just kept expecting him to wake up she held hands with her dad the one that was looking for his body or looking for his son at the scene and the dad reached down stroked his son's face one last time and he whispered you did your best son you did your best 26 people died from that fire that lasted 25 minutes they were all staff and patients of the clinic so it was clear that this man with the tear gas was targeting the psychiatric clinic but why like why of all businesses there are so many businesses to be angry about out there there's conglomerates there's these evil entities that are ruining the planet, killing people for a dollar.

11:51A psychiatric clinic, like a tiny one? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Why? The staff are just trying to help people. The patients, they're already vulnerable. They're seeking help. They're trying to recover. Literally, why? What did they ever do to you? The only person that could properly answer that question was a man who was lying unconscious in the hospital. The hospital were trying to do everything in their power to save this man. They're trying to save this man that had just killed dozens of people. His name is Morio Tanimoto, and this wasn't the first time he tried to kill someone. Police were pretty quick to find out who he was, where he lived, because his wallet was found near his body.

12:33Now, the main questions that the police have before he even wakes up is, who is he? Why did he do this? Why did he target the clinic? And how did he actually execute this evil plan? So to answer the first question, the police go to Morio's place, his residence, and they interview a ton of the neighbors. So inside of his house, they find a knife sheath that matched the knife that was found in his pocket. So yes, this is his place of residence. They find a bag of drugs, like prescription drugs, that he had been prescribed by the psychiatric clinic, and he had tried to light them on fire. So he's a patient there.

13:05Yeah, he's a patient. Oh, just you wait. He's been to this clinic over 112 times. Wow. So it's obvious now that A, he's a patient at the clinic, but maybe something happened. Maybe he felt wronged by them. Like, why was he going to the clinic in the first place? Like, what mental health battles was he struggling with? Police also uncovered evidence that Morio had been planning this attack for a very, very long time. In fact, he might have been inspired years ago. So he had these old newspaper clippings all around his apartment of the 2019 Kyoto Animation Arson attack. Do you know what happened?

13:43Okay, so if you guys want like a whole separate video on that, please let me know. But it's a pretty extensive case. Here's a quick summary. Morning of July 18th, 2019. So just like two years before this incident, the Kyoto Animation Studio, which side note is this incredibly popular anime studio in Japan. They produce a lot of massive hits. The building was mainly for production staff. So it's not like a theme park or some sort of retail front. It's basically for employees to come and make the animation. and a man that did not work there currently walked in with a trolley of 11 gallons of gasoline, walked in through the front door, doused the entire entrance area and even several employees, like several human beings of the animation studio with gasoline and ignited everything on fire.

14:34The building ended up exploding. It was reported that he was screaming, die as he was doing all of this. He also set himself on fire by accident while he was lighting everything up and ended up trying to flee, but he was actually caught by the police outside. 36 people would end up dying. 34 people would end up injured. It was really hard for people to flee from inside the building because the fire originated near the entrance, so they were effectively trapped. But another thing to note is that the fire caused like this mini explosion, which filled most of the floors of the building with toxic fumes and smoke within 30 seconds.

15:13So even if you wanted to find a window to jump out of or some sort of escape route, the time that you would have to do that is next to nothing. The suspect was in custody. He was charged. He's a 42-year-old named Shinji Aoba, and he accused the animation studio of stealing his work. and that is known to be the motive of why he took 36 people's lives. It is considered one of the deadliest attacks in Japan between civilians in recent history. And Morio had newspaper clippings of this incident all over his house, all over his apartment. Side note, another piece of evidence was Morio had bought gasoline from a store before this event took place, which here's the thing about Japan now.

15:59If you buy gasoline now, that's not pumped directly into your car. Like if you buy a canister of gasoline, you have to provide your ID and you have to write down the purpose of this purchase. And it's all because of the 2019 Kyoto attack. So it was very easy to trace that he had purchased a ton of gasoline. And he wrote down that it was for his motorcycle, which I don't think that he owned a motorcycle.

16:28so the police are asking themselves is this some sort of like copycat crime like is he trying to just get notoriety is he trying to recreate this is he just unhinged they asked the neighbors if they knew morio well and you know what can you say about him one by one most of the neighbors are like oh i don't know i mean he's only been living here for like about a month so there's not really much I can tell you about him. But maybe ask like that man down the street. That man has been living here for like 35 years. So they go to the man down the street. And sure enough, he's a 51 year old who had been in the neighborhood for so long, almost four decades.

17:03And he said, you know, it's crazy. Moria had actually lived here in the 90s. Moria was living here decades ago in 1995. He lived here with his wife and kids back then. The family wasn't very friendly. They just kept to themselves typically. But then out of nowhere one day, they moved out. Never said goodbye. Never tried to contact any of the neighbors. Just abruptly moved. I thought I would never see them again. But last month, Morio moved back. But he was alone this time. No wife. No kids.

17:42Okay, more questions now than there are answers. like where the hell is this guy's family? Like, did he kill them too? Kind of. Well, at least he tried to. Morio Tanimoto was born to a pretty financially stable family. Some would even consider them wealthy, well-off. His dad owned a steel metal factory. And the kids, he has four kids, right? All of them were at the factory as kids learning about the dad's business. They were trained there since they were old enough to be. Morio was actually really passionate about metal work, which I don't you know I don't really know much about metal work so I can't really say but he just had this mission throughout his entire life like this vision in his head he's gonna get his degree he's gonna qualify as a specialist in sheet metal work he's gonna take over his dad's business bring it to the next level like he had all of these dreams and it seemed like the logical route for him the family supported him he was a hard worker but the very end at the very last second, they were like, sorry, Mario, we're actually going to give it to your brother.

18:43We're going to let your brother inherit everything. He was so enraged. He felt so betrayed. He felt slighted. He left the family home and actually never talked to his brother ever again. They were estranged for more than 30 years for the rest of their lives. And once he left his family home, he was just lost. He was bouncing around trying to get any job that he could. So a lot of, you know, restaurant work and all these things, just odd jobs like washing dishes. And for a while, things weren't looking great. But then in 2003, he's like, you know what? I have a skill. I have literally I have a skill.

19:20I should just get a job at a sheet metal factory. So that's what he does in Osaka. And it kind of went back to his roots. It utilized his skills, which was a great choice. From the moment that he started working at this factory, the owners fell in love with him. They were so impressed. Like they had nothing but praise for this guy. he was leagues ahead of the other workers he's constantly getting promoted promoted another raise another raise another raise you could just tell which pieces were done by him that's how good he was compared to everybody else you could literally tell his work apart he was also very passionate about training the younger workers so he's not very competitive he just wanted everyone to do well he just wanted everyone to learn more about sheet metal work and the only thing that they noticed about him was that he was very sensitive when his work was criticized.

20:06But after the agitation would wear off, the owner said, you know, he could see where we were coming from. He could see where the criticism was coming from. And we were just trying to help. So, I mean, overall, it seems like a well-adjusted guy. He's making enough money to support a family. So he gets married to a nurse. They settle down in the apartment and they have two young sons. Now, we don't really know much about the family other than the fact that they weren't that friendly to their neighbors. And other than the fact that they got divorced in 2008. And ever since then, Morio has been completely alone.

20:41So in 2003, he's at the height of his life. Great job. Married with kids. Like five years later, divorced and everything else in Morio's life just starts going downhill. His whole attitude changes. He starts showing up late to work. He would just skip work with short notice. The owners are trying to talk to him because he had been such a valued employee for so long. They're like, we don't want to fire you, but like, what's going on? And at one point, his boss is like his unqualified therapist. His boss is like, I don't know what to do. I'm just trying to listen to the guy. He just seems so lonely.

21:13He just seems so stressed. Like, he's nobody. And in 2010, about seven to eight years after working in that factory, Morio silently quit and just vanished. He stopped answering calls from co-workers. His bosses didn't answer any text messages just disappeared it said that after quitting his job morio poured all of his energy into trying to get his wife back into trying to get his family back okay but just picture this right he's mentally fragile he's desperate so imagine the way he's trying to get his wife back it's not going to be the most romantic way like let me let me try to rekindle our love babe but maybe it's more of an attempt ruled by fear and desperation like you gotta you gotta come back to me she starts rejecting him she's like you're spiraling i can't be with you and he falls into this depression he starts wasting all of his money on horse race betting and he just couldn't let go of the idea that family must be together that's like his thing in 2011 morio tries to make it a reality his eldest son invites morio to come over and spend time with the family so the ex-wife she didn't want to get back together but she didn't cut him off completely like she wants him to be a part of the kids lives and they're not really kids anymore but you get it how old is the son i i would i want to say early 20s at this point okay so adults yeah so mario accepts the invitation makes his way to his ex-wife's house and he's walking in with a little smile but it's not it's not really like a happy smile just like a weird unsettling smile mario had several kitchen knives in his bag and he was there because he wanted to end his life and take his family with him so that the family could quote be together so the family had dinner and they're sitting around the table laughing reminiscing and morio he just couldn't get himself to do it i mean everyone's laughing and having a good time like he loves these people right so he can't do it and instead everybody goes to bed that night But Morio and his eldest son, so his ex-wife and his youngest son, they go to bed.

23:25Him and his oldest son, they stay up at night to talk about life and work and family and they're sharing drinks. And it's supposed to be this moment where despite everything that's happened, father and son are bonding. But it all comes crashing down at six in the morning. Morio pulls out his knife with a six-inch blade and starts stabbing his son in the head. he stabbed him in the head multiple times thankfully his son was able to fight him off and get help when the police arrived at the scene both father and son were taken to the hospital they were drenched in the son's blood and after this incident in 2011 morio was sentenced to five years for the attempted murder of his son which is insane five years for attempted murder for stabbing your own son in the head and face over and over again like how does that even make sense wow i don't know that's yeah wow the trauma the son's gonna have yeah like the recovery like like forget about the mental even the physical too it's on the head yeah from your dad wow and then just like the trauma of you know the mom was seeing the son recover seeing her child to recover and i'm sure there's maybe even levels of guilt of like maybe i chose the wrong person to have children with like maybe this is all because of me maybe it's because i left you know there's there's always ways that the human brain blames ourselves for things but there's so many levels of trauma and the court was like let me hear out morio let me hear out his trauma so morio argued that he was depressed and lonely he just wanted to die and he wanted to take his family with him so that they could be reunited.

25:14The judge was like, for that reason, I'm just going to give you five years. So I guess he was given less years instead of if he had been like, I just wanted to kill my son because my son was pissing me off. The judge was like, oh no, you're suicidal. Let me help you. It's safe to say, even though he got off so easy with the justice system, his family had no longer wanted anything to do with him. I mean, it took the family such a long time to recover after what happened. I don't even know if they'll ever fully recover. The eldest son refused to let this be his life though. He started working and tried to move on.

25:50And in 2016, Morio was released from prison. He was free, but he had absolutely no one, nobody. He didn't have his family, his brother that he was estranged from, his own children were gone, his ex-wife was gone, he had no friends, he had no one. To further prove this, later when the police went through his phone, he didn't have a single saved contact on his phone. He was completely and utterly alone. And it was also very hard for him to find a job after he got out because of his criminal record. He had a hard time readjusting into society and reintegrating into life. And also, I'm not telling you this to try and elicit some sympathy for the guy.

26:31Trust me, I'm not. I'm just walking you through what happened, right? And I know it sounds like, oh my god, no, poor guy had nobody. But that's not what I'm thinking at all. I do think that there are a lot of conversations to be had about isolation, though, and how it can lead people to do very drastic things. But nothing excuses murder, especially mass murder. So anyway, Mario has no job, no friends, no family, nothing. His mental health is just spiraling downward, and it's getting really scary. And as of 2021, even his bank account was completely empty. Like he had no savings to fall back on.

27:05He had nothing left. So one month prior to the fire, he settles down in his very, very old apartment that he had once shared with his family back when they were happy, which look, I can't imagine that to be good for anyone's mental health. When you feel alone, to go live in the place that you used to live with your family and you used to have a great life, like you're just asking to dig up old wounds and then pour salt directly into them like it's not smart it's suspected that he made the decision in that apartment to take his own life and to take down as many people with him he chose the clinic which is an odd choice because the clinic was the only place that tried to help him when he was at his lowest maybe there were arguments disagreements on treatment.

27:55I don't know, right? Maybe he wanted them to change his life. Maybe he thought the clinic was going to make him whole again and make his ex-wife take him back. And they weren't able to do that because therapy isn't magic. And maybe he blamed them for it. Maybe he was irrationally angry. We don't know. But we do know that Morio went to that clinic a lot. Close to 112 times. He originally started going in 2017 to treat his insomnia. and he reported feeling lethargic. But somewhere in those 112 visits, he went from being interested in his treatment into being interested in mass murder. Six months before the fire, with every visit, he started documenting on his phone how many people were in the clinic at all times.

28:41He started staking out the clinic on Fridays, Thursdays and Fridays. He recorded the daily comings and goings of the clinic employees, the patients he would write on Thursday, September 9th at 9.13pm, Dr. Nishizawa, the clinic head, left through the first floor entrance of the building. He even noted how he was going to take measurements of exit doors. He recorded that certain Fridays, the clinic would hold these group counseling events where anywhere between about 20 people would be gathered inside the clinic. And he decides that's the time because the clinic is small. The most people would be gathered in the clinic at those counseling sessions.

29:24And he knew that there was going to be another session Friday morning, December 17th, 2021. He even rehearsed his attempt at his own house several times before the actual fire. Now, a few weeks before the fire on December 3rd, Morio initiated another part of his attack. He applied caulk to the fire extinguisher door. You know how fire extinguishers are usually placed behind a glass door where everyone can see it? And you open the door. Oh, he jammed it? He sealed it with caulk. Caulk is... If you look at the backsplash of your kitchen, you know the white parts? It's like the cementy glue that seals everything.