A man has been arrested after a Japanese streamer was fatally stabbed while she livestreamed on a downtown Tokyo street on Tuesday.
Police in Japan said Friday that they had arrested Kenji Takano, 42, on suspicion of attempted murder.
He has since been sent to prosecutors but has not been charged yet, according to a statement from Tokyo metropolitan police on Friday.
The victim, Airi Sato, 22, was rushed to a hospital on Tuesday with critical injuries after she was attacked, suffering more than 30 stab wounds to the upper body, according to police. She was later pronounced dead.
According to the New York Times, Sato was heard screaming “Help!” by witnesses and livestream viewers before her WhoWatch stream went dark, with the sounds of emergency vehicle sirens audible for those watching live.
Her audience was reportedly posting questions in the chat, like “Where did she go?” and “Someone help!”
The suspect told police he got to know Sato through her livestreaming and had seen her in person a number of times, and that they had a financial dispute, according to the Asahi newspaper and other media reports.
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The Asahi newspaper reported that Takano had lent Sato 2.5 million yen (around C$24,225) and that she did not pay him back despite a court order to do so.
Kyodo News reported that it is believed that Takono began lending Sato money around 2022. The outlet also reported that during a search of his home in Oyama, police seized more than 10 receipts for bank transfers, some of them to Sato.
Tokyo police said Takano had admitted to the attack but said he didn’t mean to kill Sato.
According to police, Takano used a survival knife to stab Sato in the head, neck and torso while she stood looking into her cellphone camera on a busy street.
Takano travelled from Oyama, a city about 100 kilometres north of Tokyo, to carry out the attack, after Sato announced the livestream. He tracked her location by watching the footage, according to reports.
Violent crimes are still rare in Japan, where gun control is extremely strict, but there have been a number of high-profile knife attacks and others using handmade guns in recent years amid a bleak wage and employment outlook.
— With files from The Associated Press
