Japan revises laws to cover stalking threats in e-mails
Amid outrage at the murder of two women, Japan revises laws to cover threats made by suspects through electronic communications
When police arrived at the Yamashita family home in Saikai, Nagasaki prefecture, in December 2011, they were greeted by a scene of carnage. Mitsuko Yamashita, 56, and her mother, 77-year-old Hisae Yamashita had been stabbed to death in the back of a car outside the property.
The court heard that 28-year-old Tsutsui had stalked Mitsuko's daughter and sent at least 17 e-mails to the family threatening that he would kill them if they got in the way of his efforts to be reunited with his former girlfriend.
The case is part of a surge in stalking cases across Japan that has led the government to revise its stalking laws, including adding provisions against threats being made by e-mail.
Previously, the law against stalking - which was introduced in 2000 - only specified loitering around named individuals, making repeated or silent phone calls or sending unsolicited fax messages. Threats sent by e-mail have now been added to that list, while police also now have the power to issue perpetrators with a warning or ban them from certain areas where their victims live or work.
According to Japanese authorities, reported cases of stalking have soared since the law was first introduced in 2000, although experts say that may simply be a reflection of more cases being reported to police.
In 2000, some 2,280 incidents were reported to authorities. The following year, that soared to 14,662 - a figure attributed to increased awareness of the new law. The figure was stable at 14,618 incidents in 2011, but that leapt again last year to 19,920 cases.
