Popular Fuwatchi live streamer Mogami Ai was murdered while doing a live stream

Live streamer Mogami Ai was stabbed to death by a man while she was live streaming on the video streaming service Fuwatchi (“who watch”, a live streaming service that has been around since 2015 and users can start streaming without belonging to a live streaming agency and viewers can send comments anonymously. The service’s selling point is that ‘anyone can start for free’).

Nearly 100 viewers were watching the live broadcast of the crime. A reporter from the social affairs department of a major station said, “It seems that the video broadcast continued even after the woman was stabbed, and viewers seem to have heard the tense voices of men who seem to be police officers. When the man was arrested in the act, he said something along the lines of, “I had some trouble with my girlfriend,” and when questioned, he said, “I didn’t mean to kill her.” The police are investigating, including whether the two knew each other”.

In the video, the woman had just started a project called “3.11 Walking Around the Yamanote Line”. Masayan (@maa_masayan), another “Fuwachi” broadcaster who said he spoke to her the day before the incident, said the following.

“Yesterday, she consulted me about the Yamanote Line project, and I had just talked to her during a collaborative live stream. When the incident occurred, I was also streaming, and suddenly, a listener commented, ‘Mogami Ai was stabbed!’… At first, I thought, ‘That must be a lie,’ and didn’t believe it, but when I watched her video, it was true, and I was shocked. She didn’t seem to be having any particular troubles or worries…”

Mogami was a popular streamer with nearly 2,500 followers. She started streaming around November 2022 and seems to have been active in a so-called “chat-style” streaming style. “The content of the videos is really trivial. I would sit at home and talk, read comments from listeners and get “tipping” money. I don’t know what kind of people were the listeners, but I get the impression that there were a lot of people who were like regular “fans” (ibid.) Fuwatchi has a system called “streamer grade,” in which streamers are ranked on a 10-point scale according to the content of their usual streams and how exciting they are. Masayan continued, “She was in the highest rank”.

The “3.11 Walking Around the Yamanote Line” project that the woman did on that day was, as the name suggests, a real-time broadcast of her walking around the stations on the Yamanote Line. In addition, depending on the amount of “tipping” from listeners, the woman would roll a dice, and depending on the result, she would do events such as “collaborating with (other live streamers),” “moving forward one station,” or “moving back one station”.

Streamers can also earn rewards through a “tipping system” with paid items. The woman was a popular live streamer with over 2,600 followers on “Fuwatchi.”

More details of what happened was that at 9:50 a.m., police received reports that a woman had been stabbed by a man on the street in Takadanobaba (350 meters southwest of JR Takadanobaba Station). Mogami was found stabbed in the head, neck and chest. She was taken to the hospital and was confirmed dead 80 minutes later. Police recovered a 13cm survival knife object and another knife he did not use in the crime. It is believed that the man attacked her while she was walking alone.

A witness told Yomiuri Shimbun, “I heard a woman scream, ‘Ahhh, help me!’ When I looked outside from the second floor of my workplace, I saw a woman lying on the ground and a man nearby being held down by police.”

Another witness told Post Seven, “I heard a scream and looked out the window, and saw a man chasing a woman, running in the opposite direction from the scene of the crime. After about five minutes, there was a commotion outside, so I went downstairs from the building and saw a person lying on the road covered in blood. A man wearing a black cap and black jumper was standing silently next to her. 　The man only had a smartphone in his hand. The woman on the ground hadn’t moved at all, so I assumed she had died. I wondered if there had been an accident, and then a police car showed up and took the man away”.

A male company executive who witnessed the incident from his office recalled, “I was working at my desk as usual when, just before 10 a.m., I suddenly heard a woman scream, ‘Ahhh! Help me!’ The scream lasted about 20 to 30 seconds. At first, I thought it was a child making a fuss, but now when I think back on it, it was the most desperate scream I’d ever heard. After that, I opened the blinds and looked outside and saw the person’s legs on the ground. I also saw his sweatshirt. I didn’t see any knives or anything, but there was a man peering at the woman. There was a motorcycle nearby, and he seemed to be watching calmly, so I thought he might be trying to help. At first I thought it might have been a traffic accident… But I had some guests coming over, so I didn’t go to see the crime scene. Then, about five or ten minutes later, a police vehicle arrived”.

A taxi driver who happened to be passing by the scene immediately after the incident also witnessed the shocking scene saying, “I didn’t see the stabbing, but the man was taking a video while he kicked the woman, who was lying on the ground covered in blood. He didn’t say a word and just stood there in silence, which was scary. The woman didn’t even move, let alone resist, so I thought she might be dead. The woman’s hands were covered in blood”.

There are speculations about the mental health of the assailant and those acquainted with the assailant has posted on Twitter, but authorities are still investigating.

It was reported by other publications that Mogami Ai was a voice actress, but the agency Kaleidoscope who represents the voice actress released a statement,  “We would like to express our condolences to the victim in this incident, and at the same time, we have confirmed that she is safe and well, and would like to inform you that this is not our company’s ‘Mogami Ai’.  The voice actress Mogami Ai expressed her condolences to the deceased.