A 22-year-old woman died after being stabbed on a street in downtown Tokyo and a man believed to have had a financial dispute with her was arrested at the scene, police said.
Airi Sato was attacked at around 9:50 a.m. on Tuesday while walking alone in a residential area near JR Takadanobaba Station in Shinjuku Ward. She was livestreaming when a man assaulted her with a survival knife about 13 centimeters long.
Sato, a resident of Tokyo’s Tama, was stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest and was taken to a hospital, where she was later confirmed dead.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrested 42-year-old Kenichi Takano with two knives in his possession.
The police said Sato and the suspect got to know each other in 2021 through her video-sharing activity and it is believed that he began lending her money around 2022.
When Takano was apprehended, a blood-covered knife was found at his feet and the other was in his backpack, the police said. He was standing near the victim and appeared calm, according to witnesses.
Takano was quoted as saying, “There was trouble. I had lent her more than 2 million yen ($13,500) but she did not return it.”
Investigative sources said Sato and Takano had consulted police outside Tokyo over the problem.
Takano, who is from Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, told investigators he went to Tokyo after seeing an announcement that Sato would livestream her journey on the capital’s circular Yamanote Line. He tracked her down by watching the feed, the police said.
Takano, a resident of the city around 70 kilometers from the center of Tokyo, was quoted by the police as saying he did not intend to kill Sato.
A man in his 50s who was in a nearby office at the time said he heard screams, including cries for help, lasting around 15 seconds. He said he then saw a woman lying on the street some 300 meters southwest of the busy train station.
A woman in her 40s said she saw a man wearing a black hat and mask apparently beating a woman at the scene, and after she fell down, he held a smartphone toward her. (Kyodo)