IBARAKI - A 49-year-old woman in Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, has been arrested on suspicion of injuring a 42-year-old woman she lived with by sewing her upper and lower lips together multiple times with a threaded needle, police said.
The suspect, Masae Sakurai, who describes herself as a part-time worker, was arrested on suspicion of assault resulting in injury.
Sakurai is suspected of sewing the woman’s lips together at around 1:30 p.m. on June 29 at her home in Koga, where the two had been living together.
According to investigative sources, the victim’s mouth had been pierced multiple times with a needle from beneath her nose to below her lower lip, and the lips had been sewn together. The thread reportedly passed through the inside of the woman’s mouth, making it difficult to see from the outside.
The incident came to light on June 30, the day after the alleged attack, when the victim ran into a store near Sakurai’s home and showed an employee a piece of paper that read, "Help me." The woman was wearing a mask at the time and was unable to speak because her lips had been sewn, and the store employee called police by phone.
Subsequent reporting found that the victim had apparently gone to the store to seek help while Sakurai was away from the house.
Police have not disclosed the extent of the woman’s injuries, but said her life is not in danger.
A nearby resident said Sakurai appeared to have moved into the area about a year ago after buying a previously vacant secondhand property. Another resident said several people had been seen coming and going from Sakurai’s home, though their identities were not known.
An acquaintance who said they visited Sakurai’s home between six months and one year ago described the residence as cramped, with a hallway leading from the entrance to a room of about six tatami mats containing one double bed. A cat was also in the room, which the acquaintance said appeared to be Sakurai’s living space.
The acquaintance said Sakurai and about two other people, believed to be women, were there at the time. "I did not really understand why they were there or what they were doing. They were cleaning," the acquaintance said.
Police believe there may have been other people living at Sakurai’s home in addition to the victim.
Sakurai reportedly worked at a restaurant until February last year. A former coworker said Sakurai had described the home as being like a share house, saying she let people who had run away from home and had nowhere to go stay there and introduced them to jobs. The former coworker said Sakurai had told them she received money from the people living with her.
The former coworker also said Sakurai had caused repeated problems at work, including allegedly lying to leave early. In one case, Sakurai reportedly said she needed to go to the hospital because a relative’s husband was near death, but was actually going to a drinking party. The former coworker also said Sakurai had posted customer-related information on social media without permission.
Sakurai was seen playing pachinko on July 4, four days after the victim fled and two days before the arrest, and appeared no different from usual, according to the former coworker.
A regular at a place Sakurai frequented said she did not appear to be the type to cause a commotion. Other neighbors described her as difficult to approach and said she rarely greeted people in the area.
The victim had been living at Sakurai’s home since April last year and told police she was unable to flee immediately because she was afraid of Sakurai.
Police have not disclosed whether Sakurai has admitted to the allegation. Investigators are examining the relationship between Sakurai, the victim and other people believed to have lived at the home, as well as the circumstances that led to the incident.
Source: TBS
