“I still like her,” suspect tells police.

When hearing about a story involving stalking or sexual harassment, it’s hard not to assume the typical pattern of a man victimizing a woman. However, every once in a while a case occurs to remind us that it can happen anywhere and with anyone.

On 10 February, police responded to a complaint of a woman who barged into a restaurant in Nara City. After the officers interviewed the suspect, it was learned that she had worked there from the spring of 2019 to about February of last year. As a result of this incident, the woman was arrested on suspicion of violating the Stalker Control Act because she was said to be infatuated with a former co-worker there, a woman in her 70s.

The following day, the former coworker went to the police to present further evidence: 293 messages on her mobile phone which contained nude photos of the suspect as well as other “obscene” content. The mails were sent between 23 September to 15 October, which works out to an average of about 13 a day.

In custody the suspect reportedly admitted to the acts and told police, “I still like her. I sent a large amount of mails because it felt good to spoil her.”

With her admission only serving to make the case more convoluted, readers of the news were completely at a loss about this incident.

“Huh…. Wha?!”
“Hmm. I’d say she more than ‘likes’ her.”
“It’s like one of those yuri stories, but this is… um… I don’t know. I have to think about it.”
“I think it’s great that people can find love regardless of age and gender, but everyone still needs to be aware of other people’s feelings and personal space.”
“I don’t get this at all.”
“Huh. Love is very powerful.”
“I think we’ve come a long way in accepting different types of love, but this is still shocking.”
“It’s a typo, right? In the news….”
“It’s really nice that such a unique love bloomed, but too bad that this went horribly wrong.”

While many readers appeared to have drawn their own conclusions about what happened, the nature of these women’s relationship is still very unclear. According to NHK, the suspect also told police: “My mother didn’t show me much affection growing up, but [the victim] taught me kindly and I grew to like her.”

The fact that she is now charged with stalking would suggest that her love was not reciprocated. In fact, the woman in her 70s also reportedly contacted police in back the spring of 2020 about another naked photo incident, after which police issued a warning to the suspect over the phone.

Hopefully, their problems can be resolved and each woman can receive the assistance they need, whatever that may be.

Source: The Sankei News, NHK News Web, Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
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