“We Were Dating”—57-Year-Old Defendant Claims Relationship After Allegedly Stabbing 24-Year-Old Woman to Death

“In a straddling position over the sleeping woman, he stabbed her three times with a survival knife.”

In their opening statement, the prosecutors asserted this and argued that the defendant had strong intent to kill.

The first trial session for Akira Ishikawa (57) of Fuchū City, Tokyo—charged with murder and other offenses—was held on October 27 at the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court. Ishikawa is accused of fatally stabbing A, a 24-year-old woman at the time, multiple times in a hotel room in Fuchū in February 2023.

FRIDAY Digital interviewed sources immediately after the incident. What happened between Ishikawa and A? Let us look back at the dispute and Ishikawa’s claims presented in court.

It was a misunderstanding

“It’s a hotel guest we can’t reach.”

The 110 emergency call from a hotel employee came on February 3, 2023, the day after the incident. When police rushed to the scene, they found A lying on the bed, bleeding from her neck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Around 2:00 a.m. on February 2, Ishikawa and A entered the hotel. Security camera footage showed Ishikawa leaving alone about four hours later, shortly after 6:00 a.m. After the employee’s 110 call, Ishikawa was quickly located.

A passerby spotted Ishikawa collapsed on the premises of his apartment building, about one kilometer from the hotel. When police officers questioned him and checked his belongings, they found a card in A’s name. A bloodstained survival knife was also discovered in Ishikawa’s apartment. He admitted, ‘I killed her,’ and, regarding his relationship with the 30-years-younger A, said, ‘We were dating.’” (National newspaper social affairs reporter)

Ishikawa reportedly met A through a dating site. Shortly before the incident, in December 2022, he consulted police claiming that “A posted the card number for my smartphone payment app on social media,” but soon after he withdrew the complaint, saying “It was a misunderstanding”—a puzzling behavior.

At the first hearing mentioned earlier, Ishikawa admitted to the charges, but the defense argued:

“She told him, ‘I have debts from running a café,’ and he gave her more than 10 million yen. Because her financial demands continued, he became mentally and financially exhausted.”

Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa comments:

“Even if they were dating, the man and woman likely saw the relationship very differently. For the woman, he was probably just someone who provided financial support. But the defendant convinced himself that she truly had feelings for him.

So when she showed a negative attitude or when her financial demands escalated, he may have grown increasingly resentful. The crime was also premeditated—he prepared a survival knife in advance. This is a tragedy born from the defendant’s warped delusion.”

A man unable to view his relationship with A objectively ended up taking the future of a woman 30 years his junior.