“I thought it was sloppy…” The Trial of the Instigator and Mediator [The Murder and Body Dumping Case of Ryutaro Takarajima and His Wife]

A plan that even her underling found absurd

In the “Murder and Corpse Disposal Case of a Restaurant-Owner Couple,” in which the charred remains of a couple who ran a restaurant in Ueno, Tokyo, were found in Nasu Town, Tochigi Prefecture, in April 2024, the lay judge trial for defendants Hikaru Sasaki (30) and Ayaken Hirayama (27)—who are charged with corpse disposal andmutilation.

This was a heinous crime in which seven people, including a popular child actor, were arrested. What came to light during the trial was the sheer sloppiness and cruelty of the crime.

“Ryuutarou Takarajima (55 at the time) and Sachiko Takarajima (56 at the time), restaurant owners, were shrewd businesspeople who operated 14 restaurants in Ueno’s Ameyoko district; the street lined with their chain stores was known as ‘Takarajima Road.’However, the Takarajima couple’s eldest daughter, defendant Manami Takarajima (33), and her common-law husband, defendant Seihata Sekine (34), grew increasingly dissatisfied with the couple’s management policies and plotted to murder them.

Defendant Sekine ordered Defendant Sasaki, who was his subordinate, to find someone to carry out the murder, and Defendant Sasaki consulted Defendant Hirayama, whom he had met at a club in Shibuya. Defendant Akihito Wakayama (22) and Defendant Kōki Kang (23), who accepted the request from Defendant Hirayama, carried out the murder and set the building on fire.A total of seven people were arrested, including Ryo Maeda (38), an executive at a real estate company and an acquaintance of defendant Sekine, who provided the location for the murder. “In addition to the brutality of the crime, the case received sensational media coverage because defendant Wakayama was a former child actor who had appeared in a NHK Taiga drama,” said a reporter from the crime desk of a national newspaper.

The murder plan devised by Defendant Sekine, who is considered the ringleader, was extremely sloppy. It involved attacking Mr. and Mrs. Takarajima on a street in Ueno; during the trial, Defendant Sasaki spoke with a look of disbelief, saying, “I thought it was sloppy.”Ultimately, Defendant Hirayama suggested, “Can’t we set up a secluded room?” and Defendant Maeda secured an empty house. The plan was changed to luring Mr. and Mrs. Takarajima into a car and driving them away.

During the trial, details were also revealed regarding the gruesome murder methods employed by the perpetrators, defendants Wakayama and Kang.

Defendant Sekine designated a plot of land in Nasu Town, Tochigi Prefecture, as the site for disposing of the bodies, stating, “It’s our land (owned by the Takarajima family).” He ordered Defendant Sasaki to use a stolen car for transportation, but since a stolen car could not be secured by the day of the murder, they were forced to use Defendant Hirayama’s car instead.

On July 3, the Tokyo District Court sentenced defendants Sasaki and Hirayama to 30 years in prison. Next, the trials of the perpetrators, defendants Wakayama and Kang, are scheduled to take place.

The July 16 issue of *FRIDAY* (July 31 edition) and the paid version, *FRIDAY GOLD*, provide detailed coverage of the specific details of the plan, the murder, and the events leading up to the disposal of the body.

Click here to view the full details and multiple photos↓

From the July 31, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY”