Photo/Illutration Seiha Sekine, left, with Ryutaro Takarajima in Tokyo’s Taito Ward in September 2023. (Provided by a source)

The suspected mastermind behind the deaths of a Tokyo restaurant operator and his wife asked an acquaintance to “erase” the couple before he approached a suspect arrested in connection with the case, investigative sources said.

Seiha Sekine, who was arrested on suspicion he helped to destroy the corpses, contacted the man in late March or early April, about two weeks before the charred bodies of Ryutaro Takarajima, 55, and his wife, Sachiko, 56, were found near a river in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, the sources said.

The man told police earlier this month that Sekine, the 32-year-old common-law husband of the couple’s daughter, said, “I want your help because I have someone I want you to erase” and “I will pay a reward,” the sources said.

The acquaintance said Sekine declined to disclose who the target was and that he had no intention to accept Sekine’s offer, the sources said.

Police suspect that Sekine, who was at odds with the victims over the way the restaurants were managed, was planning to kill them at least about two weeks prior to the incident, the sources said.

Sekine asked Hikaru Sasaki, 28, to kill the Takarajimas a few days before they were strangled in the garage of a vacant house in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward late on April 15 or early on April 16, the sources said.

Sasaki, who had been arrested over his suspected role in setting the corpses on fire, was rearrested May 19 on suspicion of killing the couple in a conspiracy with Sekine and four others, police sources said.

Ryoken Hirayama, 25, who was arrested May 11 on suspicion of murder, told police that Sasaki instructed him to kill the couple and burn their bodies around early April, the sources said.

Hirayama also said he asked Kang Gwang-gi and Kirato Wakayama, both 20, to carry out the deed, the sources said.

Kang, Wakayama and Ryo Maeda, 36, who allegedly drove the couple to the house where they were fatally attacked, have been arrested on suspicion of destruction of bodies.

Police plan to rearrest Sekine, Kang, Wakayama and Maeda on suspicion of murder, the sources said.

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

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