Morning attack occurred on quiet side street.

Shortly before 10 a.m. on the morning of March 11, a 22-year-old woman was walking along a street in downtown Tokyo when a man suddenly came up beside her and attacked her with a knife. The attack occurred in the Takadanobaba neighborhood, south from Takadanobaba Station, in the opposite direction from the district’s busier main commercial/restaurant district and approach to the campus of Waseda University.

▼ The quiet side street where the attack took place, not far from a cram school for middle and high school students and a Japanese language school.

A witness says he saw blood coming from the woman’s head as she lay collapsed on the ground, with her assailant aiming his smartphone at her face after he ceased his attack. When police arrived on the scene, the witness says the man raised his hand and identified himself as the attacker. He was immediately arrested on attempted murder charges, which have now been upgraded to murder following the woman’s death shortly after being rushed to the hospital.

▼ A video report from the scene of the attack

The victim has been identified as Airi Sato, a resident of the Tama district of western Tokyo (not to be confused with 28-year-old actress/model Airi Sato, who most recently appeared in TV drama Japan Sinks: People of Hope). The attacker, who is in his 40s, admitted to stabbing Sato, but denies intentionally murdering her, telling the police “I loaned her money, but she didn’t pay me back. I wasn’t trying to kill her” despite stabbing her multiple times in the face, neck, and torso. With there being no doubt that the man killed Sato, investigators are now looking into the specifics of the man’s motive and his mental suitability to be held criminally responsible. In addition to recovering a knife at the scene of the attack, officers also seized a second knife from the man’s backpack.

According to reports, Sato was live streaming at the time of the attack, which may have been a factor in the man being able to get close enough to her to strike, making the tragedy a grim reminder that while Tokyo is by many metrics a very safe city, it’s always important to be aware of your surroundings.

Source: NHK News Web, Jiji via Yahoo! Japan News
Top image: Pakutaso
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