Photo/Illutration Police officers investigate an area near the site where a livestreamer was fatally stabbed in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward on March 11. (Kotaro Ebara)

A man accused of fatally stabbing a woman during her livestream in Tokyo said he was frustrated by her refusal to repay him about 2.5 million yen ($17,000) as ordered by a court, police said.

The suspect, Kenichi Takano, 42, an unemployed resident of Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, had won a lawsuit against the woman, Airi Sato, 22, over the debt.

But he said she still would not repay him.

On March 11, Takano was arrested on a street in the Takadanobaba district of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, where Sato had been viciously attacked at around 9:55 a.m. while livestreaming a video.

Sato, who suffered more than 30 stab wounds on her upper body, was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

An autopsy revealed that a stab wound to her neck was the fatal blow.

Takano, who was found in possession of survival knives, was initially accused of attempted murder. Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department plans to arrest him on suspicion of murder.

MONEY DISPUTE

Court records show that Takano sued Sato in August 2023, seeking repayment of around 2.5 million yen that he had loaned to her in 13 installments since September 2022.

He said in court proceedings that she cut off contact with him after repaying 30,000 yen of the amount in January 2023.

Sato did not appear in court during the lawsuit.

The ruling fully sided with Takano’s claim and ordered Sato to repay the amount in full.

In January 2024, Takano contacted Tochigi prefectural police, saying he was unable to recover money he had lent to an acquaintance, according to police.

After his arrest, Takano told investigators that he felt unbearable frustration at the thought of Sato continuing to earn money through livestreaming while refusing to repay her debt to him.

“I saw a notice about her livestreaming schedule and came to Tokyo on the morning of that day,” police quoted him as saying. “Then, I identified her location by watching the live video she was streaming.”

Police said Takano has consistently explained his actions on the day of the incident, and that they believe he is mentally competent to be held criminally responsible.

(This article was written by Shomei Nagatsuma, Minami Endo and Atsushi Takahashi.)

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