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The Mainichi
12-05-2025
- The Mainichi
Editorial: Police must answer for inert response before stalking victim's murder in Japan
Why were authorities unable to protect the life of a woman who repeatedly complained of being stalked? The police must identify problems in their handling of the case. The body of the 20-year-old woman was found at the home of a 27-year-old man in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, who she had been dating. The man has been arrested on suspicion of abandoning her corpse. Since last June, the woman and her family had repeatedly contacted police with claims the man had physically assaulted and followed her. The police have said they took all the necessary steps, but we can't help but doubt that claim. The man was verbally warned, but police did not issue a restraining order or an official warning under the anti-stalking law. They explained that the victim had not wished for these steps and noted that she and the man had sometimes rekindled their relationship. However, victims' words and behavior can waver due to threats or their emotions. The situation required a fine-tuned response, taking the woman's emotional state into consideration. Of particular concern is how police were unable to ensure the woman's safety despite receiving nine consultations by phone over a period of 12 days immediately before she went missing last December. It was reported that the man had been lurking near her home, but she was simply told not to go outside. Also problematic is the fact that it took over four months for police to search the man's home. Right after the woman went missing, it was confirmed through reports from her family that a window of a house she had evacuated to was broken. Even though the suspect admitted to going to see the victim on the day she went missing, police did not immediately proceed with a forced search of his home. Clearly, Kanagawa Prefectural Police did not respond sufficiently. They may have lacked awareness of the gravity of the stalking, and they bear a heavy responsibility for failing to protect the victim. The Anti-Stalking Act was created in the wake of the murder of a woman who had been stalked in the city of Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, in 1999. However, there has been no shortage of cases in which police were aware of the damage, yet the situation turned disastrous. Thirteen years ago in Kanagawa Prefecture, a woman was murdered by a former partner in the city of Zushi. Aside from breaching a person's human rights, stalking also can be life-threatening. This awareness should be thoroughly instilled within police forces across Japan, and their approach should be reviewed.
Japan Forward
09-05-2025
- Japan Forward
Don't Let Stalkers Claim Even One More Victim
このページを 日本語 で読む The 20-year-old woman repeatedly reported to the police that her life was in imminent danger. Could she not have been saved in time? How can we prevent stalkers from committing such a tragedy again? This horrifying incident, which ended in a tragic outcome, must be thoroughly investigated. Asahi Okazaki, a resident of Kawasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture, went missing on December 20, 2024. However, it took more than four months for her body to be found buried under floorboards at the home of her ex-boyfriend, Hideyuki Shirai. He has since been indicted on suspicion of abandoning a body. Ms Okazaki had reached out to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police on multiple occasions to report the suspect's violence towards her. She described to them his repeated stalking of her. And shortly before her disappearance, she complained she was scared because the suspect was lurking near her home. The worst outcome might have been avoided if strong measures had been taken under the Anti-Stalking Act. However, the police did not recognize that Okazaki was the victim of a stalker before events reached that point. The reason, they said, was that the "victim did not want them to do so." Eventually, her body was discovered during a search related to the suspected violation of the law. According to the police, that was because the "suspect's testimony made it possible to establish evidence constituting a crime" after Okazaki went missing. Considering the enormous consequences, these excuses appear feeble at best. The Anti-Stalking Act became law in 2000. It was introduced by a Diet member in response to the "Okegawa Stalker Murder Case" of 1999. The law creates an exception to the principle that criminal investigations should not impinge on civil matters by allowing police to intervene before a situation becomes serious. Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters In other words, this law is intended to ensure that victims stay alive. Therefore, waiting to determine whether a crime has been committed after the fact does not align with the intent of the law. Even after the Anti-Stalker Act took effect, it has been revised repeatedly in response to major incident after major incident. In 2016, the offense was changed from a crime requiring a complaint to a crime not requiring a complaint. Subsequently, in 2021, the definition of stalking was expanded to include keeping a watch on the location where the victim was physically located. However, without proper implementation, these legal reforms cannot be effective. The Kanagawa Prefecture Police have said, "Our investigation will clarify everything about the incident and identify areas for improvement." The results of that investigation should be released in detail to the public so that the public can understand the lessons learned and where the police failed. In cases of stalking involving couples with romantic feelings, the emotions of the individuals involved can fluctuate widely. Also, privacy issues are involved, which makes timely intervention more complicated. Even so, we hope that the police will respond more diligently. This view is also shared by the father whose eldest daughter died in the 1999 Okegawa incident. In response to Asahi Okazaki's death in the Kawasaki incident, he said: "I want members of the police station where the victim sought help to think again about whether the way they respond recalls their mission to protect the lives of citizens." Those are words that the police should take as their starting point. Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun このページを 日本語 で読む
Tokyo Reported
06-05-2025
- Tokyo Reported
Kanagawa cops arrest man for leaving corpse of ex-girlfriend in Kawasaki residence
KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have accused a 27-year-old man of abandoning the body of his former girlfriend inside his residence in Kawasaki City, reports Nippon News Network (May 5). On Monday, police sent Hideyuki Shirai to prosecutors on suspicion of abandoning the body of Asahi Okazaki, 20, inside his residence between December 20 last year and April 30. On the night of April 30, police searched the home of Shirai on suspicion of violating the Stalking Prevention Act. A partially skeletal body was found in a bag. At the time of the discovery, the whereabouts of Shirai were unknown. Police later learned that he fled to the United States in early April. He arrived at Haneda International Airport on May 3. The suspect initially admitted to the charges, but has stopped speaking about the case since his arrest. That same day, police confirmed that the body found in the residence is that of Okazaki. Hideyuki Shirai (X) Stalking Okazaki is also a resident of Kawasaki. She disappeared from her home on the morning of December 20. The glass windows of her home were found to be broken and the door unlocked. Her family reported her missing to two days later. After she went missing, her family asked for information on social media. In January, it was discovered that Okazaki's bicycle was found near the home of the former boyfriend. Between December 9 and 20, Okazaki consulted with police about stalking by Shirai. 'Shirai is hanging around my house,' she said by telephone. However, police did not question Shirai during this time. Asahi Okazaki (X) 'Why did she have to go through this?' According to TV Asahi (May 6), the body of Okazakia was returned to her grandmother's house, where she had been staying until just before she went missing. According to the network, there were signs that the body had been burned. 'I met [my daughter] yesterday, and she was in a terrible state,' her father told the network. 'I have nothing but hatred for the perpetrator. It's not something a normal person would do. She was just killed and then burned. It's the same as being killed twice. I really feel sorry for my daughter. Why did she have to go through this?' Shirai participated in hip-hop. He worked as a scaffolder, but was fired due to frequent absenteeism. He met Okazaki at a bar in Kawasaki with the president of his former employer. The two started dating around April last year. According to his family, they broke up about a month later, when Shirai's stalking began. According to police, Okazaki consulted the nearest Kawasaki Rinko Police Station about domestic violence by Shirai from June onwards. The police repeatedly warned Shirai, but stopped taking action after confirming that the two had reconciled last November. However, a friend tells TV Asahi that Shirai's stalking is believed to have escalated in December when the two broke up again.
Tokyo Reported
06-05-2025
- Tokyo Reported
Corpse found in residence of ex-boyfriend of missing Kawasaki woman
KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have announced the discovery of skeletal remains inside the Kawasaki City residence of a man in his 20s who is the former boyfriend of a woman who went missing last year, reports NHK (May 2). In December, Asahi Okazaki, 20, was reported missing. According to her family, she had consulted with police before going missing about stalking by her former boyfriend, whose whereabouts are unknown. On Wednesday night, police searched the home of the man in Kawasaki Ward on suspicion of violating the Stalking Prevention Act. A partially skeletal body was found in a bag. Due to the stage of decay, the gender and approximate age of the body are unknown, police said. In addition to working to identify the body, police are seeking the whereabouts of the former boyfriend. The case is being treated as abandoning a corpse. Asahi Okazaki Bicycle found Okazaki is also a resident of Kawasaki. She disappeared from her home on the morning of December 20. The glass windows of her home were found to be broken and the door unlocked. Her family reported her missing to two days later. After she went missing, her family asked for information on social media. In January, it was discovered that Okazaki's bicycle was found near the home of the former boyfriend. According to Okazaki's family, the bicycle is believed to have been stolen shortly before she went missing. 'I might be killed' On Thursday night, her family and others gathered at a police station to demand explanations from police officers. According to the family, the former boyfriend's stalking behavior got worse from November 2012, and we had reported him to the police many times.' 'My daughter was stalked by her ex-boyfriend, who would sometimes hang around her home and workplace,' said Tetsuya Okazaki, her father. 'The day before she went missing, she sent messages to her co-workers saying, 'I might be killed.'' Okazaki's 18-year-old brother said, 'I hope that the body found isn't my sister, but in my heart I'm sure it is. It's just sad. I feel like I'm blaming myself for not being able to help her.' He added, 'I'm frustrated that the police have said there was no criminal activity and haven't conducted the investigation we wanted.' A man in his 40s who is a relative of Okazaki, said the family had consulted with police about her being a victim of stalking. They also urged them to search for her after she went missing, according to the Mainichi Shimbun (May 1). 'She was a cheerful and nice girl who often came to our house to play, and she also looked after my children,' he said. 'I had heard her talk about how she was worried about being stalked. Even after she went missing, the police told us they couldn't find her because there was no criminal activity involved. It's really frustrating.' Okazaki consulted a female friend, 19, about troubles with the former boyfriend. 'I heard that she had a fight [at his house], and when she said she was going home, he stripped her of her clothes and made it impossible for her to leave,' the friend recalled. A person involved in the investigation said, 'The police station responds on a case-by-case basis. At this point it doesn't appear that their response was clearly inadequate, but the prefectural police will likely be examining the matter in detail.'
The Mainichi
02-05-2025
- The Mainichi
'I might get killed': Japan police probe link between body found at man's home, his ex
KAWASAKI -- A bag containing a body of unknown gender and age has been found inside a house in this city's Kawasaki Ward, sparking an investigation into the abandonment of a corpse, Kanagawa Prefectural Police announced May 1. According to sources close to the investigation, the body was discovered during a search of the home of a man in his 20s suspected of stalking. A 20-year-old woman who previously dated him and later complained of being stalked has been missing, and the prefectural police are investigating the link between the corpse and the missing woman. According to investigative sources, officers from Kawasaki Rinko Police Station found what appeared to be a body inside a traveling bag during a search of the man's home on suspicion of violating the Anti-Stalking Act on the evening of April 30, and confirmed it to be a human corpse at the police station the following day. The police will conduct an autopsy May 2 to identify the body, which is partially skeletonized, as well as the cause of death. According to the family of the missing woman, Asahi Okazaki, she had been complaining of being stalked by her ex-boyfriend, who lives in the home that was recently searched by police. Okazaki went missing from her home on the morning of Dec. 20, 2024. A window at her home had been broken and unlocked. Upon noticing her absence, her family reported to the prefectural police on Dec. 22. Her family told the Mainichi Shimbun, "At the time, the police told us that they were not sure if her disappearance was related to a crime." The family said Okazaki herself "had reported to police over and over again after the stalking had escalated since November 2024." According to her 50-year-old father, Okazaki texted her mother via social media the day before she went missing, saying, "I might get killed." The father fumed, telling the Mainichi, "The police did nothing for us," while adding that the corpse "has not been identified as hers." Her teenage brother also told the Mainichi, "I hope the body is not my sister's." A 19-year-old friend of the missing woman said she talked about trouble with her ex. "She told me that when they had an argument (at the man's home) and she told him that she was going home, she had her clothes stripped off and she couldn't leave." The friend recalled that when she visited Okazaki's home around last summer, the man abruptly showed up and banged on the door from the outside. Speaking of Okazaki, the 19-year-old said, "She was a friendly and cheerful person. I can't accept (what has happened)." After Okazaki went missing, her family asked for information from the public on social media. On May 1, her family and others concerned visited the police station and asked for briefings from officers. Regarding the authorities' response to Okazaki, an investigative source told the Mainichi, "The police station was responding each time, and at this point there has been no apparent lack of action, but I assume the prefectural police will closely examine the matter." Meanwhile, a source close to the investigation has revealed to the Mainichi Shimbun that the man who lives in the house where the human corpse was found has been missing for about a month and possibly left the country. The police are looking into the man's whereabouts.
