Photo/Illutration Police officers escort Manabu Wakui from the Shinjuku Police Station in Tokyo on May 9. (Hiromichi Fujita)

A man who had received repeated police warnings for stalking a woman was arrested on suspicion of murdering her in Tokyo in an apparent dispute over money, investigative sources said.

Metropolitan Police Department officers rushed to a high-rise condominium in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward early on May 8 and found Toshino Hirasawa, 25, collapsed and bleeding. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police arrested Manabu Wakui, 51, on suspicion of murder. He had two knives in his possession when he was detained at the crime scene.

The investigative sources said Wakui had waited for Hirasawa to return to her condo from the previous night and stabbed her several dozen times.

A company employee in her 50s who lives nearby said she was awakened by a woman screaming for help early on May 8.

The screaming continued for about five minutes, and the employee also heard a man shout, “I am not a stalker.”

The suspect told police that he wanted Hirasawa to return the money that he had given her, the sources said.

STALKING HISTORY

Wakui began frequenting a bar where Hirasawa worked about three to four years ago.

According to Tokyo police, Hirasawa made an emergency call in November 2021, saying a customer who had hit on her was waiting for her as she returned home.

Police gave Wakui a verbal warning. They also urged Hirasawa to temporarily move and not respond to any contact from Wakui.

But in April 2022, Hirasawa again called police and said a customer who was banned from entering the bar had shown up. It was Wakui.

On May 20, 2022, the Metropolitan Police Department issued a warning to Wakui to stop stalking Hirasawa.

However, he persisted, and five days later, police arrested him on suspicion of violating the anti-stalking law.

Wakui was never indicted after 20 days in detention. Instead, police issued a restraining order against him upon his release.

No problems occurred between Wakui and Hirasawa, so police allowed the restraining order to expire a year later without extension.

TENS OF MILLIONS OF YEN

After Hirasawa’s death, Wakui told police that he had given her 10 million yen ($64,000) so that she could open her own bar, and that he showed up at her home because he wanted that money returned, the sources said.

According to Wakui’s father, who lives with his son in Kawasaki, just west of Tokyo, Wakui sold off a car, motorcycle and expensive toy cars around 2021.

When the father asked why he sold items from his hobby collection, Wakui replied that he needed money to marry a woman he was seeing.

The son later took out loans and gave Hirasawa between 20 million yen and 30 million yen, the father said, adding that Wakui described her as a “good girl.”

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

Related News