TOKYO (TR) – Earlier this year, Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a 51-year-old man over the alleged fatal stabbing of a bar hostess outside her high-rise apartment building in Shinjuku Ward.
At around 3:00 a.m. on May 8, Manabu Wakui, of no known occupation, allegedly used a fruit knife to repeatedly stab Toshino Hirasawa, 25, in the stomach, neck and back in a courtyard of the building in Nishi Shinjuku.
Hirasawa was later confirmed dead at a hospital.
“I’m not a stalker!” Wakui yelled before police arrived at the scene. Officers later found him to be possession of a blood-soaked knife.
Despite the claims of Wakui, who is from Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, about not being a stalker, records with the police say otherwise in this story of one-way affection that ended in violence.
“I wanted to bruise her body”
Wakui arrived at the residence several hours before the incident to lie in wait for Hirasawa. After seeing her arrive, he chased her for several dozen meters and stabbed her to death with the fruit knife, causing dozens of wounds to her neck, stomach and back.
“I wanted to bruise her body,” he later told police. “I gave her 18 million yen on the condition that we get married, and she didn’t pay me back.”
However, based on a story on the site of Shukan Shincho in August, there is no known history of a relationship between Wakui and Hirasawa. What is known is his history of stalking her.
Hirasawa had experience as a bar hostess all across Tokyo. In posts on social media, she is often seen surrounded by expensive bottles of champagne as she flashes the peace sign. Wakui was acquainted with Hirasawa through his visits to her bars.
“Two or three years ago, Wakui started frequenting the girls’ bar in Shinjuku that Hirasawa ran, persistently hitting on her,” a police reporter says. “He’d wait at her home, which caused trouble. In December 2021, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police gave him a verbal warning. However, he showed no signs of stopping his stalking.”
In May 2022, police arrested him for violating the Stalking Prevention Act. The following June, they issued him a one-year restraining order.
A year later, in July 2023, when Tokyo police checked on the situation, Hirasawa said, “I’m fine now.” As a result, she did not ask for an extension, which caused the restraining order to be lifted.
However, Wakui’s resentment continued to grow.
“You never know when a customer will leave”
Hirasawa was a popular hostess in the ritzy Ginza quarter and Ueno entertainment district. Below is a post that she made on social media during her time in Ginza, along with a selfie of herself wearing glittering jewelry and holding a bottle of LOUIS XIII Cognac. In it, her desire to be the number-one hostess at the club is clear.
“It’s not uncommon to miss out on the number-one spot by a few thousand yen,” she wrote. “So, you end up regretting not having had a drink at that time [with a customer]. If you say, ‘I’ll meet you next week, so let’s have champagne then♪’ and then lose contact, you’ll regret not having had champagne that day. You never know when a customer will leave.”
She also wrote about starting out in the business, when she was 18 and working in Ginza. At that time, she was often ignored and unable to get customers.
“When I finally started at X (the name of a club in Ginza), I went to work every day,” she wrote. “Even if there were customers with a reservation, I always sat down when a drop-in customer came in,” she wrote. “I wrote down my customer notes and sales every day without fail. I started with zero customers, but in the fourth month I finally became No. 1, and I maintained that position until I quit, and that’s how I got to where I am today.”
A month before she was killed, Hirasawa was active on Twitter.
“I know that when you’re not [making money], you tend to think negatively, but that feeling is conveyed to [your] customers, and your product value goes down,” she wrote on April 16, “and you should be aware that you are creating a negative loop (like I used to do). If you brainwash yourself into believing that you are number one, you will gradually gain confidence and it will really happen. I think the basis is brainwashing yourself, hard work and persistence.”
The next day, she wrote, “Don’t give up when everyone else gives up. Keep running when everyone else stops. Finally, your goals will become results, your dreams will come true, and you will become a unique person. Until now, neither men, friends, money, nor jewels have made me happy. I think my happiness can only come from the results of my work. How much of my life am I willing to bet on?”
“There is nothing more important than life”
A police source tells Shincho that there are numerous stalking cases that lead to tragedy.
“While a restraining order is in place, the police will check on the victim’s safety once a month and will contact the victim and warn them if there are any signs of suspicious behavior, and provide personal protection,” the sources says. “However, men who repeatedly stalk do not stop after being warned or warned again. They blame the woman who dumped them for their financial difficulties and continue to harbor a grudge.”
In the case of Hirasawa, the restraining order could have been extended, the source adds.
“It seems that Tokyo Metropolitan Police were not consulted after that, but it seems hard to believe that he suddenly surfaced after two years, so there must have been some kind of warning,” the source continues. “What is most regrettable is that Hirasawa did not move and Wakui still knew his address. There is nothing more important than life. Even if it is bothersome, it is important for those who have been victims of stalking to move out as soon as possible so that they are never followed again.”
“There is nothing more important than life”
In order to boost sales, hostesses frequently use their sex appeal to captivate male customers, creating what can be viewed as “pseudo-romance.” This seems to have been the case with Wakui and Hirasawa.
After Wakui was arrested, his father told reporters that his son sold his car and motorcycle to raise cash.
“He suddenly said he was going to marry his girlfriend and was leaving the house,” Wakui’s father told Shincho. “As soon as he gave her some money, she was cold to him when he went to the bar and they started fighting. So, when he asked for his money back, he was banned from the bar and treated like a stalker. People call him a stalker, but that’s not true. The woman was trying to trick him, and he fell for it. He’s stupid.”
