Akira Watanabe, a 54-year-old man living in Toyokawa Japan has been arrested for allegedly sending a number of death threats to video game company Sega.

Japanese news portal Yomiuri says that the suspect was arrested for sending at least 12 threatening letters to Sega Sammy Holdings from December 2021 to February of this year 2022. In the emails he allegedly wrote that he would “torch the company and kill the employees” and even “kill the family and children of employees.”

Upon being investigated by police, Watanabe said that his motive for writing these emails was because he was losing at a game online. It has not been revealed by the authorities which game he was playing.

The threat of “torching” the company down is especially significant as it evokes the Kyoto Animation arson attack in 2019 where a 41 year old man started a fire in the office of animation studio Kyoto Animation for supposedly plagarising his writing. The incicdent killed 36 people.

It is because of this tragedy that Japanese authorities have become much more vigilant of death threats being written to companies and it is likely a reason for the arrest of Watananbe following his threats to Sega.

There have been similar threats since the Kyoto attack including a high school student sending death threats to Konami and a 21 year old threatening to unleash poisonos gas through a local aracde. Both were arrested following their threats.