About

2019 Tokyo Yandere Stabbing refers to the murder attempt made by 21-year-old woman Yuka Takaoka involving stabbing of a man in her Tokyo home on May 23rd, 2019. Following Takaoka's statements on how she intended to kill her victim "out of love," multiple internet users compared her behavior to that of a yandere, with fanart of Takaoka also being posted online.

Background

On May 23rd, 2019, at approximately 3:50 PM local time, Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested 21-year-old Japanese citizen Yuka Takaoka for allegedly stabbing a male acquaintance in her apartment. The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition with two abdominal wounds made with a kitchen knife.^[1] During the police questioning, Takaoka was quoted saying “Since I loved him so much, I just couldn’t help it. After killing [him], I, too, wanted to die.”^[2]

Online Reactions

Online, multiple users in Japan and the West likened Takaoka's behavior to that of a yandere, an anime character trope where a person's obsession with someone is taken to the extreme, often to the point of where they would commit murder or deal extreme harm out of love.

On May 24th, Twitter user @mombot tweeted about the event, with the post gaining over 7,300 retweets and 11,000 likes in four days.^[3] On May 25th, Twitter user @bbygemzin tweeted photographs of the crime scene and the suspect, writing "real life yandere". The tweet gained over 15,800 retweets and 13,100 likes in four days (shown below, right).^[4]

Takaoka's Instagram account was also uncovered containing numerous photographs of her in cosplay, including yandere characters.^[5]

Fan art depictions of Takaoka were also made with works posted using hashtag #yuyuyunochan. However, many of the submitted drawings became the subject of public condemnation and were later deleted by the artists.^[6][7] Additionally, many also condemned the positive reactions from otaku due to the real-life impact the crime had on the victim.^[8][9]

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