10-05-2025
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.
