Hibiki Sato, 26 and unemployed, had a methodical obsession: Ena Matsuoka’s eyes.
The 21-year-old Japanese singer, a member of the group Tenshi Tsukinukeni Yomi, posted selfies like millions of people around the world. Sato enlarged them until he found the surrounding landscape reflected in her pupils. From that, he deduced which train station she used. He cross-referenced the information with Google Street View and pinpointed the exact location. He also studied videos recorded in Matsuoka’s apartment—the position of the curtains and the direction of the light—to determine which building she lived in.
On the night of September 1, 2019, in Tokyo, he waited for her and assaulted her as she entered her building. He fled, but security cameras identified him. The police arrested him weeks later and formally charged him on October 8. An investigator told the newspaper Sankei Shimbun bluntly: every photo you upload can reveal where you are.
