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Live streamer killed on Tokyo street had her location tracked by attacker through stream

Murderer came from two hours away on morning of attack.

On Wednesday morning, Airi Sato was walking down a quiet street in downtown Tokyo’s Takadanobaba neighborhood when she was suddenly attacked by a man with a knife. The 22-year-old Sato, who was in the middle of live streaming when the attack occurred, sustained multiple wounds to the face, neck, and torso, and though rushed to the hospital died shortly after arrival.

Her assailant was apprehended at the scene of the crime and has been identified as 42-year-old Kenichi Takano. While being taken into custody Takano was heard saying that he had lent money to Sato which she had not paid back, and during questioning he had loaned some 2 million yen (US$13,600) to Sato, having gone into debt himself to procure the funds.

The attack took place shortly before 10 a.m., but as late as just two hours before that Takano wasn’t even in Tokyo. Takano is a resident of the town of Oyama in Tochigi Prefecture, from where it’s about a two-hour train ride to Takadanobaba.

Sato wasn’t a resident of the Takadanobaba neighborhood either, as she lived in Tama, a part of Tokyo much farther west of the city center. However, Takano knew that Sato would be in downtown Tokyo that morning because she’d posted online that she was planning to live stream from around the Yamanote loop train line, which includes Takadanobaba Station, on Thursday morning. “The night before, I saw a notice that Sato-san was going to be doing a live stream while walking around downtown Tokyo, so on the morning of the 12th, I went to Tokyo,” said Takano during questioning, explaining that he was watching her live stream while on the train himself to track her location. After seeing that Sato had gotten off the train at Takadanobaba Station, Takano did the same, and since he knew which direction she’d gone in from there and what she was wearing from watching the stream, he was able to spot her on the street, close in, and make his attack before she was prepared to defend herself or flee.

Following his arrest Takano claimed that he had no intent of killing Sato, but her autopsy found that she was stabbed more than 30 times, so downgrading the charges against him from murder to manslaughter is extremely unlikely, and the prosecutors’ work will now most likely turn to determining his mental fitness to be tried and punished for Sato’s death.

Source: FNN Prime Online via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin, Jiji, NHK
Top image: Pakutaso
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