The Osaka District Court has sentenced a 27-year-old unemployed man to 22 years in prison for killing his 19-year-old girlfriend in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, in 2024.

According to the ruling on Friday, Masaru Nishimitsu, who lives in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, stabbed to death Karen Watanabe, a university student, at her apartment on May 18, 2024, TV Asahi reported.

The prosecution claimed Nishimatsu killed Watanabe because he didn't want her to know that he was unemployed and had a large amount of debt.

Nishimitsu called 110 from a hotel room at around 1:20 p.m. on the day of the murder and said he couldn’t pay his hotel bill and that he had taken a lot of sleeping pills. When police went to the hotel, Nishimitsu told them he had killed his girlfriend.

Police went to Watanabe’s apartment and found her body. A blood-stained kitchen knife was found near her body which had multiple stab wounds.