Company continues to put people first as it meets with victims’ families and refuses to use funds for business recovery.

Almost immediately after the July 18 arson attack on Kyoto Animation, people around the world began asking where they could send donations. Anime fans have always had a passionate connection to the industry, and in the case of Kyoto Animation, producers of some of the most tenderly emotional animated works in recent years, the bond runs especially deep.

In response to the outpouring of sympathy and support, Kyoto Animation set up a dedicated bank account into which donations could be transferred, from donors both inside Japan and abroad. Nearly five months after the attack, the sum has grown to roughly 3.2 billion yen (US$29.6 million), and the company believes that it’s now time to start distributing it to those in need.

On Tuesday, the first meeting of the donations’ allocation committee was held in Kyoto. As previously announced, Kyoto Animation will not be using a single yen for business recovery activities, and will instead be channeling all of the money to victims and their families.

For surviving victims who were directly injured by the fire, Kyoto Animation has pledged that it will be providing their share of the donations in a single lump sum, as opposed to installments. However, the company will not be simply dividing the total donations by the number of affected employees and giving each recipient a uniform amount. Instead, it will be taking into consideration the specific circumstances of each individual. This process will include meeting with bereaved families, and taking into account the additional needs of households with children and/or in which the Kyoto Animation employee was the primary breadwinner, and are thus most adversely affected, financially speaking, by the employee’s death or work-preventing injuries.

Though an encouragingly large number of injured Kyoto Animation employees have now returned to work, many remain unable to do so as a result of physical or mental issues, and the 36 who passed away will never do so. The road to emotional recovery is going to be a long and difficult one, but at least the generous effort of donors, and Kyoto Animation’s humanitarian philosophy for distributing the money, will make it easier for victims and their families to pay the bills along the way.

Source: Jiji via Jin
Top image: Kyoto Animation
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