A man admitted during the first hearing of a lay judge trial at the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday to stabbing a woman to death in Tokyo¡¯s Takadanobaba district in March last year while she was livestreaming.
Kenichi Takano, 44, killed Airi Sato, who was 22, on March 11, 2025, according to indictment documents. He attacked her as she was walking and livestreaming on a street, stabbing her face and chest multiple times with a knife.
Sato had been making money through her videos distributed on a livestreaming app.
In an opening statement, prosecutors said Takano got to know Sato through her video streaming and spent a total of roughly ?2.4 million ($14,800) through purchasing items on the app and paying to drink and eat at a hostess bar where she worked.
He claimed that he had lent her about ?2.5 million, upon her request, but that she would not pay it back. Thus, he planned on attacking her after seeing her livestreaming the day before the incident, according to the statement.
His defense team said he had repeatedly asked Sato to pay back the debt and filed a civil lawsuit against her.
During investigations, Takano reportedly told police that he had seen a notice about her livestreaming schedule, came to Tokyo from his home in Tochigi Prefecture on the morning of the incident and identified her location by watching her livestream, according to media reports.
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