Photo/Illutration Hikaru Sasaki, who was arrested on suspicion of destroying two corpses, in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward on April 29 (Masaaki Kobayashi)

Four of six suspects in the disposal of a couple’s bodies in an arrangement worth more than 10 million yen ($64,300) only recently became acquainted at a nightclub in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, sources said.

From late 2023 to early this year, the four men, all in their 20s, met on occasion at the club located a few minutes’ walk from JR Shibuya Station near the famous Shibuya Center-Gai street.

They have known each other for only a short time and did not even know each other’s full names, the sources said.

One of the suspects, Hikaru Sasaki, 28, was arrested on April 29 over allegations he ordered the disposal of the bodies of Ryutaro Takarajima, 55, and his wife, Sachiko, 56.

Another suspect, Ryoken Hirayama, 25, is believed to have played an intermediary role.

Hirayama was arrested in Tokyo on April 21, five days after the burned bodies of the couple were found by a riverbed in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture.

Sasaki told investigators about Hirayama, “I met him at a club in Shibuya around February and March.”

They only knew each other by their first names and communicated mainly through social networking sites, the sources added.

Hirayama is believed to have prepared a vehicle, gasoline and carrying cans for the burning of the bodies.

He also said he received more 10 million yen to get rid of the bodies, the sources said.

Shortly before surrendering to police, Hirayama had met with Sasaki, the sources said.

Kang Gwang-gi, 20, and Kirato Wakayama, 20, also frequented the club in Shibuya, the sources said.

The two are believed to have taken the bodies to the dumping site in Nasu.

The sources said that Hirayama told investigators, “I was asked to dispose of the bodies, and I asked (Kang and Wakayama) to do it.”

Hirayama also said he paid them “2.5 million yen each.”

He told investigators that he drank with the two several times at the Shibuya club.

“I called them Kang and Kirato. I don’t know their full names,” Hirayama was quoted as saying.

When Kang and Wakayama were captured by police in Osaka, they had several hundred thousand yen in their possession. Police believe they had spent most of the money provided by Hirayama by then.

The investigative sources said none of the four suspects had met the Takarajimas before April 15, when they were attacked in Tokyo.

Seiha Sekine, 32, who was arrested in the case on May 6, is believed to have been the ringleader. He worked at restaurants operated by the Takarajimas and had developed a relationship with the couple’s eldest daughter.

(This article was written by Minami Endo, Shomei Nagatsuma and Hiromichi Fujita.)

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