Man Jailed for Stabbing Konbini Clerk in Attempt at Going Viral

A 32-year-old man from Hokkaido was sentenced to a year and a half years in prison for stabbing a konbini clerk in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, in an attempt at going viral.

The trial was held on October 4 for the man accused of causing bodily harm in April. The unemployed man stabbed a female konbini clerk in the back with a kitchen knife while livestreaming the crime online.

The Asahikawa District Court pointed out, “The defendant committed the crime because he was dissatisfied with the lack of improvement in the rankings of his videos,” calling it an “extremely selfish crime” in which the victim, who wasn’t at fault, suffered due to an irrational grudge.

In addition to the year and six months in prison, the man will serve four years of probation. The sentence was rather lighter than expected as the court deemed that the crime “appears to have been caused by mild intellectual disability.”