Crime & Courts

Woman in 20s Believed Live-streaming on Tokyo Street Stabbed to Death; Man at Scene Arrested (UPDATE 1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:50 JST, March 11, 2025 (updated at 17:00 JST)

An emergency call was made to the police at around 9:50 a.m. Tuesday reporting that a woman had been stabbed by a man with a knife on a street in Takadanobaba, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. When officers from the Totsuka Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrived at the scene, they found a woman in her 20s lying on the ground with stab wounds to her head, neck and chest.

The woman was taken to a hospital, but later confirmed dead.

The police arrested a man in his 40s, who was at the scene, on suspicion of attempted murder. The woman was believed to have been stabbed suddenly from the side while walking alone on the street as she was live-streaming video. The police have switched the charge to murder and are investigating the details of the incident.

According to a senior police officer, the man admitted to stabbing the woman and said, “I didn’t mean to kill her.” Before his arrest, he said that he had a trouble with the woman. A bloody survival knife (13 cm in blade length) was seized from the scene, which is believed to be the murder weapon. The man was also said to have been carrying another knife.

The incident occurred in an area with houses and shops about 350 meters southwest of JR Takadanobaba Station.