Latest news with #AsahiOkazaki
Japan Times
23-05-2025
- Japan Times
Ex-boyfriend of dead woman charged over Kawasaki stalking
The Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office on Friday indicted a former boyfriend of Asahi Okazaki, 20, whose body was found at his house in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. The office in the Kanagawa capital charged 27-year-old Hideyuki Shirai, of no fixed occupation, with damaging and abandoning a corpse, without specifying whether he acknowledged responsibility. Kanagawa police will continue investigating the case. According to the indictment and other sources, Shirai burned her body between around Dec. 20 last year and April 2 this year, put it in a bag and hid it under the kitchen at his house. Okazaki went missing last December. Her body was discovered when police searched his house last month on suspicion that he had violated the law against stalking. The body in the bag was partly skeletonized and seems to have been burned intensively. This indicates that at least a month had passed since her death, although the cause was not clear. According to Okazaki's relatives, she repeatedly consulted police, saying she was harassed and stalked by Shirai. The prefectural police have set up a team to examine their handling of her case before and after she went missing.
Japan Times
21-05-2025
- Japan Times
Family of woman found dead at ex-boyfriend's home complained about lack of police probe
The family of Asahi Okazaki, whose body was found at her ex-boyfriend's home in Kawasaki, had lodged a complaint with a police headquarters not involved in the case about the lack of action by local police against alleged stalking by the man, it was learned Wednesday. According to investigative sources, in mid-January, a member of the 20-year-old part-time worker's family told a police officer at the police headquarters — the family member's acquaintance — that the Kanagawa Prefectural Police had "made no moves" since Okazaki went missing in December last year, despite the family's "repeated requests" for launching an investigation into the 27-year-old former boyfriend, Hideyuki Shirai. Receiving the officer's report, a division of the headquarters conveyed the complaint to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police and its Kawasaki Rinko police station, and sought explanations about their response to the case, the sources said. In reply, the local police said they were "doing what we have to do." The headquarters later told the family about the action it had taken, the sources added. Okazaki's body was discovered under the floor of Shirai's home in Kawasaki during a police raid linked to stalking laws on April 30. He was arrested for allegedly abandoning the body. According to the family, Okazaki had frequently told her friends and relatives, as well as the police, about harassment and stalking by the former boyfriend. The family filed a missing-person report with the prefectural police on Dec. 22, two days after she became unaccounted for. Given the fact that the brutal crime happened despite her and her family's consultations with the prefectural police and the family's demand for a stalking probe, the police have set up a verification team to probe whether there were problems with their moves around the time Okazaki disappeared. The police department said it cannot comment until the team concludes its work.
South China Morning Post
14-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
Japanese woman's death sparks calls for tougher anti-stalking law
The discovery in Japan of the body of a 20-year-old woman at her ex-boyfriend's house has sparked criticisms of the country's anti-stalking law and the poor handling of the case by the police. Police found the skeletal remains of Asahi Okazaki in a bag hidden under the floorboards of the house in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture, on April 30. It was their fourth search of the premises, and their first full one with a warrant. By then, Okazaki had been missing for over four months, according to local newspapers. A postmortem later revealed that more than a month had passed since her death and her body had been partially burnt. Officers met Okazaki's 27-year-old ex-boyfriend, Hideyuki Shirai, at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on May 3 after he returned from a trip abroad, the Asahi newspaper reported. He was later arrested for illegal disposal of a corpse. Public anger was stirred over a newspaper report quoting the victim's family, with many questioning whether the police should have intervened sooner in the case to help prevent Okazaki's death.
Asahi Shimbun
10-05-2025
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: Stalking case in Kawasaki that led to worst-case outcome
Bouquets of flowers are offered on May 5 in front of a house where the body of Asahi Okazaki was found in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on April 30. (Asahi Shimbun file photo) In a spin-off of Miko Yasu's popular graphic novel series 'Hakozume' (Police in a Pod) that was dramatized for TV, fictional Machiyama Police Station keeps getting calls from a quarrelsome couple who would report each other for vandalism, initiating a fight, and so on. Senior police officer Kana Kuroda and her colleagues urge the couple to break up and promise never to see each other again. A few days later, however, the woman goes missing. Massive bloodstains are found in the apartment where the couple used to live. Police mount a search for the man as the prime suspect. Stunned by this worst-case outcome, Kuroda asks herself, 'What should have been the correct way for us to proceed? Where did we go wrong?' It is never easy to determine exactly when and how to intervene in an altercation between lovers. One misstep could lead to unexpected--even fatal--consequences. In the case of 20-year-old Asahi Okazaki whose body were discovered in Kawasaki, the Kanagawa prefectural police put together an inspection team to examine its own handling of phone calls and other communications from the woman, who reported she was being stalked by her former boyfriend. Okazaki called the police around 10 p.m. on Dec. 19 last year, but was told to 'call back during the daytime.' Something serious must have been troubling her, as she phoned again just after 7 a.m. the following day, only to be told to call again later. Okazaki vanished that same day. This is so hard to take. Anti-stalking measures have been reinforced through repeated legal revisions. Still, a National Police Agency official who handles such situations has been quoted as saying, 'I feel quite strongly that what matters the most in implementing those measures is the awareness of each individual police officer.' I wonder what sort of anxiety Okazaki was fighting when she ended her last call to the police. I am trying to imagine, holding my smartphone in my hand. --The Asahi Shimbun, May 10 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Japan Times
09-05-2025
- Japan Times
NPA chief urges Kanagawa police to review response to stalker case
National Police Agency Commissioner-General Yoshinobu Kusunoki said Thursday that he will instruct the Kanagawa Prefectural Police department to thoroughly review its response to a case in which the body of a 20-year-old woman was found at her former boyfriend's home in the city of Kawasaki on April 30. Her family claims that the woman, Asahi Okazaki, was stalked by the man and that the response by the police was inadequate. Kusunoki said at a news conference that the Kanagawa police department reported that it takes the outcome of the case seriously and will work to examine if there were any points in its handling of the case that could have been better. "It's difficult to accurately understand the danger and urgency (of a stalking case) when it is detected, but it is likely to escalate into a serious case," the NPA chief said. He said that the NPA had instructed police nationwide to make themselves available to people seeking advice on harassment and stalking and to prioritize ensuring their safety, and noted the need to check whether the Kanagawa police followed this instruction.
