Deadly fire hits Japanese porn theatre

A fire at a pornographic video theatre in downtown Osaka, Japan's second-biggest city, killed 15 men and injured 10 people, local police said.

Police arrested an unemployed man, 46, who admitted to arson, a spokesman said, declining to give further details.

"I got tired of living, so I set a fire," Kyodo news agency quoted the man as saying.

He lit a newspaper in one of the 32 rooms in the "Preview Room Cats" theatre, which each had a reclining sofa, TV and video recorder, Kyodo said.

About 120 firefighters and 40 fire engines battled the blaze on the first floor of a seven-storey building before dawn, a local fire department spokeswoman said. It was extinguished about 90 minutes later.

The establishment, which described itself as an "adult video theatre", is among many in Japan where customers can watch rented videos in small, separate rooms. Equipped with showers, the theatres are often used as cheap hotels by customers to spend the night, domestic media said.

At "Cats", customers could stay up to 11 hours for 1,500 yen ($NZ21.23) after 11 p.m., Kyodo said.

Japan has relatively little violent crime, but several cases have shocked the public lately.

A man who said he was tired of life went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district in June, killing seven people and wounding a dozen others.

- Reuters