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Woman stabbed by stalker despite consulting police 5 times

41 Comments

A 52-year-old woman sustained severe injuries after being stabbed in the stomach on a side street in Tokyo's Adachi Ward at around 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday night. The woman identified the assailant as her ex-boyfriend, Satoru Ishizaki, 49, police said.

The woman is in a stable condition in hospital. Fuji TV reported Friday that police arrested Ishizaki who was hiding at a relative's house in Tochigi and he has been charged with attempted murder.

Police said that the woman had consulted police five times since last July, complaining that Ishizaki was stalking her. She initially came to the police after receiving a message from Ishizaki saying, "I'm going to kill you." In December, Ishizaki, confronted her on the street and threatened her with a knife, demanding they get back together.

Following the incident, the woman was told by police that they would handle the case. However, she demanded that an official warning be given to Ishizaki.

Police then confronted Ishizaki and ordered him to write a statement promising that he would leave the woman alone forever.

Ishizaki was quoted by police as saying he used the knife to scare the woman and didn't plan to stab her, but lost his temper, Fuji reported.

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41 Comments
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Following the incident, the woman was told by police that they would handle the case.

Police then confronted Ishizaki and ordered him to write a statement promising that he would leave the woman alone forever.

Seems like that worked out well...

29 ( +31 / -2 )

I wonder, is there something equivalent to a US restraining order in in Japan? I know something of that nature wouldn't solve the stocking/harassment problem, but it'd at least give police enough reason to lock someone up before they stab someone. It's ludicrous that someone asks the police for help 5 times and they still got stabbed.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

Would anything really help against these kind of people except locking them up? They don't care about a restraining order or a warning. That stuff doesn't help unfortunately. She is lucky she survived.

17 ( +19 / -2 )

@therougou

Apparently most stalkers back off after a warning from the police.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

police can't be bothered with such trivialities, there is too much real police work to be done in the form of providing directions to people in front of the koban.

10 ( +18 / -8 )

ordered him to write a statement promising that he would leave the woman alone forever

You can't make this stuff...golly geez!

5 ( +9 / -4 )

ordered him to write a statement promising

breaking promises...how low can you go?

I am now expecting something like "I was drunk, cannot remember what happened...".

7 ( +11 / -4 )

@papigiulio

what do you think will happen after he gets out of prison? any stalker who is serious about hurting someone isn't going to stop because he or she was put in jail for a few days. in fact, it might make them even angrier. besides hiring the yak for protection, there's no way to prevent these types of crimes.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

How many times in the history of relationships has brandishing a weapon and demanding to get back together actually worked? Sheesh...

15 ( +16 / -1 )

Even in the US, most restraining orders aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Police then confronted Ishizaki and ordered him to write a statement promising that he would leave the woman alone forever.

Wow the police were too severe on this poor misunderstood guy, he was only looking for love.

This woman goes to the police 5 times about a creep stalking her and all they do is this ?

There is something fundamentally wrong with this whole situation, firstly the police should have done something after the woman went to the cops the fiist time, after he threatened her with a knife on a previous occasion he should have been arrested and mentally evaluated, if found to be in denial or unbalanced then he should have been referred to the appropriate authorities for treatment.

This case should never have come about, this woman should not have been stalked to the point of being stabbed in the street !!

Anti stalking laws need to be strengthened to the point that if you continue to harass and stalk some one you are locked up and no ifs buts or maybes there should be no exception to this rule for public safety.

Ever been stalked ? I have it is not nice !

5 ( +8 / -3 )

In December, Ishizaki, confronted her on the street and threatened her with a knife, demanding they get back together.

So is that technique that usually works in Japan? What a lunatic.

Once again, Japan's finest have shown they are not taking this matter seriously. I realize this is an old-fashioned place but couldn't they try to keep up a little bit better? It's not like this happened for the first tiem - there have been many (too many) pretty high-profile cases including stalkers that go too far. They need to get on this issue and take it seriously, not just wait for the idiots to come and turn themselves in.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Am I missing something here???

A guy says he is going to kill a woman, later on he threatens her with a knife and the police take action by making him write a "I promise to be a good-boy note".

Guarantee 100%, if I threatened a woman with death and than confronted her brandishing a knife, I wouldn't be seeing daylight for a long time - but hey I'm not suggesting keystone competency is based on ethnic profiles.

I truly hope the poor woman recovers fromm her wounds physically & mentally - but it'll be a hard road.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

On another level, she will have trouble trusting other men now. Saying the wrong thing could easily re-traumatize her.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

The J-plod I've encountered have been pretty decent guys, but the more stories I read on JT the more I wonder just what on earth they do in those Kobans all day... they clearly don't go out of their way to help people in need of their assistance.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The real problem is the lack of the basic human right to self-protection. At the very least, women should carry pepper spray to fend off pervs and stalkers. A stern warning from police is...meaningless to a psycho intent on harming another person.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Maybe those police officers including their superiors should be on the hook for her recovery. Clearly they dropped the ball here. What does it take to get the keystones to do their work around here?

6 ( +7 / -1 )

The real problem is the lack of the basic human right to self-protection.

No. The real problem is that people have this massive sense of entitlement, and they don't know how to deal with disagreement and rejection. Sensible precautions are one thing, but the comment above suggests we should put the onus on the potential victims to be responsible for not being attacked.

No. Stricter warnings and penalties for attackers. Put the fear of hell into them, and make sure time is spent in prison.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

And criminals/stalkers wouldn't think to use a stun gun/taser/pepper spray against their victim or while commiting their crime...

3 ( +6 / -3 )

One would think that threatening someone with a knife would be plenty to land a man in jail for a few years at least. But I guess it comes down to evidence. If there were no witnesses, it would be hard to prosecute.

And if they jailed every man that texted a death threat, I don't think Japan would have enough prisons.

Also, we cannot expect the police to know which stalkers are going to turn stabby, as most of them do not.

My question is, what has the woman been doing since December to protect herself? Sitting around waiting for the police to come protect her? Reading some of these comments, I am afraid that many of you will do the same thing. Sorry, but there is only so much the police can do. Non-acceptance of that simple fact puts people in danger.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The police actions are seriously weak, making him write a promise letter? This isn't high school

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@ Kurobune Even in the US, most restraining orders aren't worth the paper they're printed on. LMAO Kurobune if you think so try it and lets see how much of a paper trail that one action would generate. If you threatened someone and that person calls the police and the person who made the threat can not be found the police will look for him and arrest him. Thank OJ Simpson for that.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The police that ignored this should be fired, fined and thrown in prison to let Japanese citizens know that they will be taken seriously when entering a complaint against a stalker.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Police then confronted Ishizaki and ordered him to write a statement promising that he would leave the woman alone forever.

Can anyone read this and possibly disagree with the saying that Japan is just a country of 12 year-olds? "Ordered him to write a statement"??????

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Again? Obviously the reforms made to the stalking laws were insufficient. How about toughening the laws up? Any pathetic little jerk that threatens to kill a woman gets two tears in jail mandatory sentence. That will stop these losers from taking out their little man emotional outbursts on a woman. I knew that girl that was killed in motoyawata a few months ago and it happened just down the street from me. These pathetic little losers need to learn that their intimidation has consequences! Lock the losers up for two years as soon as they make any kind of threat towards a girl! Do it!!!!!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

This is absolutely horrifying. It's clear that the police can't do anything to stop a stalker once a psycho like that gets going.

The only possible solution is, in my opinion, deterrence via draconian sentencing. Convicted of stalking? Mandatory minimum 3 years. You commit battery as a stalker? 10 years. Get them off the streets and get the rest to think twice before they ruin an innocent person's life.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

You DO have a basic right to self protection in Japan, even as a foreigner. Just last week a female friend beat the bejesus out of a sales guy that forced his way into her house (yes, you read that right. Shes a toughie and he picked the wrong "weak watery housewife"!) he ran off but they went to the police and he was tracked down and arrested. Never was there any suggstion that she was at fault.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Well, it was careless on the police to not properly assure that the woman was safe.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Stalking is a really hard thing to prosecute, in any country. For one thing, can you show the guy is stalking her? The woman knows she is being stalked, but the guy can just say things like he happened to bump into her, or he happened to have errands at the same time she was there, etc. How can the police be sure who is telling the truth?

Cops are generally for finding out who committed a crime. That means something bad has to happen first. So after someone is stabbed, after something is stolen, that is when they can start to move. Stalking is something bad, but it can't be a crime until there is a restraining order against the guy, and even so, they can't actually prevent the free movements of a determined adult. They won't put a detail on the guy to follow him around all day.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Too bad you can't carry a handgun for self defense in this country like you can in America. That would have evened the odds for this lady.

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

but the comment above suggests we should put the onus on the potential victims to be responsible for not being attacked.

Not even close, making the suggestion that victims should have greater legal rights in order to fight their attackers off is not putting the responsibility for being attacked on them.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

That would have evened the odds for this lady.

He would have stabbed her before she could get her gun out of her handbag. You watch too many movies.

And of course another scenario is that he just shoots her in the back of the head, because if she could get a gun so easily, so could he.

Unbelievable that you suggest a country with such a low murder rate adopt the ideas of a country with a very high one. You have to be American to be so unable to see these things. It has to do with being on the inside. Those of us outside can see it clearly, and yes, I am American too, just not in America. Would you like to guess a major reason why?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

"The police actions are seriously weak, making him write a promise letter? This isn't high school" but the Cyclops are... very strong when profiling, investigating, or observing anyone black.....or of the darker races

0 ( +1 / -0 )

" And of course another scenario is that he just shoots her in the back of the head, because if she could get a gun so easily, so could he."

Except that the statistics show, first of all, that the unknown factor of whether the intended victim is armed or not acts as a real deterrent. Of course, it's true that this POS would have likely killed her by any means available, but at least the woman could have been able to increase her odds of survival.

I recommend reading:

http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/WP-Tough-Targets.pdf

It's up to the individual whether to be an easy target or a tough target. It doesn't need to be a firearm to make oneself a tough target, but it's efficient.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

How terrified she must have been. And she will probably never go out without being anxious and looking twice. How one man can destroy your life. Terrible. I wish her all strength to get through this.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They "ordered" him to write a statement saying he would leave her alone? WTF??

Then again I have heard that happens in Japan...instead of them being dealt with by the courts...

Short of locking him up are there no protection orders/DVO's available in Japan?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Woman stabbed by stalker despite consulting police 5 times...and absolutely NO ONE will be held responsible, or punished (other than the stalker, of course.)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police: No Time For Preventing Crime~We've Got Bicycles To Ride!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Unbelievable that you suggest a country with such a low murder rate adopt the ideas of a country with a very high one.

A homicide rate of 5 or less per 100k is not very high at all, in fact it is very small.

He would have stabbed her before she could get her gun out of her handbag. You watch too many movies.

It depends, is this attacker only stabbing once or repeatedly stabbing until the victim loses consciousness? Also what part of the body is being stabbed? Unless the victim loses consciousness they still have a chance to fight back.

Do you mean something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-QYp2uqmw

or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6gcFPjdwiI

or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqutn-R0ZDY

The truth of the matter is that in most attacks the victims actually have 1-3 seconds to brandish a weapon or flee which then gives them the time needed to brandish a weapon.

And of course another scenario is that he just shoots her in the back of the head, because if she could get a gun so easily, so could he.

So then the answer is that in order for any type of self-defense to work one has to pay attention to their surroundings.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

She should have said that he was a communist stalker - that would have done the trick

The role of the Japanese police is not to protect the individual but the group ie the elites.

They are good at mass stops of motorists so that extortion money can be squeezed out but little else

My local station bicycle parking once had a mass slashing of bicycle seats just two metres from a koban-let's face it the Japanese police are good at being 'ordered' to do something but very little have a nose for real police work...

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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