Towano Kanae Reads Tokyo High School Stabbing as a Friendship Crisis, Not a Political Dispute

INDEPENDENT — Towano Kanae, a VTuber who explains crime and criminology, spent a 91-minute stream on Wednesday arguing that the stabbing at a high school in Tokyo’s Minato Ward is better understood as the collapse of a friendship than as a political crime. He said the argument over politics was probably the trigger, but that the question the student reportedly put to her classmate at the end pointed to something else.

As he recapped it, a 16-year-old girl was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder on Oct. 30 after a 16-year-old classmate was stabbed in the school library on the day of the school’s cultural festival. The victim was badly hurt but her life was not in danger, and the festival was cancelled. Reports say the two argued over politics in mid-October, that the student bought a knife beforehand, and that she asked the classmate whether she liked her before the attack. Towano noted that the subject of the argument has not been disclosed.

“It was meant to be glue, and it turned into gunpowder.” — Towano Kanae, on the role of the political topic between the two students

His reading was that if political goals had driven the attack, the student would more likely have confronted her classmate over her views or campaigned against them, and would not have needed to die herself. Instead the last exchange was about whether the friendship could continue. He said a friend can carry great weight for a teenager as the person who confirms their worth, and that a disagreement can feel like a rejection of the self. In his view, the political topic was probably meant as a way to get closer. “It was meant to be glue, and it turned into gunpowder,” he said.

Towano said the student probably needs medical care and welfare support more than punishment, and guessed that the case would end in protective measures rather than a stay in a juvenile training school. He stressed that this was one possible view, that little can be confirmed because the case involves a minor, and that care for the victim and for students who witnessed it is urgent.

Viewers filled the chat with their own experiences of friends who fixate on one person and of political arguments in group chats; one Super Chat came in. After taking questions, Towano and the chat traded memories of teachers with strong political views, and he closed by asking viewers to subscribe and leave a like.