The Tokyo District Court sentenced a 44-year-old man to 16 years in prison for fatally stabbing a woman while she was livestreaming on a street in Tokyo¡¯s Takadanobaba district in March last year.
According to indictment documents for the lay judge trial, Kenichi Takano stabbed Airi Sato, 22, multiple times on her face, chest and other areas of her body with a knife on March 11, 2025.
Sato had been making money through her videos distributed on a livestreaming app.
Takano got to know Sato through her video streaming and spent a total of roughly ?2.4 million ($14,800) on items on the app and paying to drink and eat at a hostess bar where she worked. He also claimed that he had lent her about ?2.5 million, upon her request.
In their closing argument last week, prosecutors said Sato did not pay back the debt, making Takano feel that he had been deceived, building up his resentment against her.
They said Takano¡¯s attack left Sato with 55 stab wounds. Following the attack, he livestreamed her body covered with blood and kicked her head, saying, ¡°She still moves.¡±
Prosecutors denounced him, claiming he ¡°trampled on her dignity.¡±
The defense team said in their closing argument that Takano could not get the money back even after filing a civil lawsuit against her, and that he had been in financial difficulty, feeling so desperate that he thought of killing himself.
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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