Japanese Influencer Murdered While Livestreaming on the Street

Japanese influencer Airi Sato was live streaming a series of train rides when she was murdered. More than 6,000 people had tuned into Sato riding the rails on March 11. Just before 10 am, local time, she screamed. The phone fell to the ground. A man loomed into frame.

“Are you dead yet?” he asked.

The man was Kenji Takano, a 42-year-old follower of Sato. The attack happened near Takadanobaba Station, a station that links commercial districts in Tokyo. Sato had announced plans to travel through Tokyo’s major train systems on her channel and was livestreaming the trip to her followers.

According to Takano, that information led him right to her. “I came to Tokyo after watching a video notifying that she would make the rounds along the Yamanote loop line the day before,” he told investigators, according to The Mainichi. “I looked for where she was on the day while viewing her real-time streaming.”

The police said that Takano used a knife to stab Sato in the head, neck, and torso. They arrested him on the scene, and he admitted to the attack but said he didn’t mean to kill her. A statement that contradicts what he appeared to say on the livestream moments after he stabbed her in the head. Sato survived the assault but died after getting to the hospital.

Takano told police that he did it because she owed him money. Sato worked at a restaurant where the man regularly ate. “I managed to raise funds with my savings and consumer loans and lent Sato more than 2 million yen (about $13,500) for living and other expenses. I made up my mind to attack her as she wouldn’t give my money back,” he said. According to the Mainichi, he’d tried to talk to the police about getting his money back from her last year.

Sato streamed under the pseudonym Ai Mogami, which is also the name of a voice actress in Japan. The shared name led to confusion in the aftermath of the crime as multiple outlets reported it was the voice actress who had been murdered and shared pictures of her online.

In a statement online, Mogami’s managers expressed their condolences regarding the murder and begged people to stop reporting it was their client who’d been killed. “We have confirmed that comments and DMs regarding the incident have been received on Moagmi’s social media accounts,” the statement said. “This has nothing to do with the incident, so please refrain from persistent comments or DMs.”

Streamers often face threats of violence, and though outright attacks are rare, they do happen. Last November, a man attacked two students in China during a livestream and cut off one of their hands. Also last year, a South Korean YouTuber in his 50s killed a rival during a livestream in Busan. The murderer thanked the court after it gave him a life sentence.

Three Twitch streamers broadcast a marathon journey through Los Angeles a few days ago when a man threatened to kill them live on camera. The man fled, and the police escorted the women from the area but were unable to find the culprit.

On March 2, famed streamer Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa live tweeted a home invasion. Siragusa said that multiple men forced their way into her home, beat and pistol whipped her, then demanded money. The attack ended, she said, when her husband shot one of them. Houston police are still investigating the attack.

In Japan, Sato streamed the attack on WhoWatco. The video has been recorded and is being passed around other places on the internet now. The street where the attack happened was busy, and people in the area took pictures of her as she lay dying and posted them online.