A well-known “anime” director charged with posting a message on the Osaka

A well-known “anime” director charged with posting a message on the Osaka Municipal Government’s website threatening to “perpetrate mass murder” has been released amid suspicions that a third party may have remotely operated his PC to send it, police said yesterday.

The Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office released Masaki Kitamura, 42, on Sept. 21 after discovering that his personal computer had been infected with a virus that could have allowed others to control it remotely and send the message, the police said.

Kitamura, who lives in Suita and worked as assistant director in the popular anime TV series “Mobile Suit Gundam 00,” had denied the charges.

He was arrested on suspicion of accessing a service inquiry section of the municipal government’s website at around 9:45 a.m. July 29 and posting a message reading: “I will perpetrate mass murder in Otaroad (a shopping district in central Osaka) on Aug. 5.”

Kitamura was charged with obstructing the work of municipal employees and the police, who put around 90 officers on alert. He was indicted in September.

Despite the threat, no attack took place in Otaroad.

The Osaka Prefectural Police also suspected he might be implicated in a bomb threat sent via email to Japan Airlines Corp. on Aug. 1. The carrier immediately ordered a flight bound for New York to return to Tokyo, but no bomb was discovered onboard. Tokyo and Osaka police earlier investigated Kitamura’s possible links to the JAL incident.