In December 2024, 20-year-old Asahi Okazaki vanished from her home in Kawasaki city. According to family members, she had been stalked by a former boyfriend in the weeks before her disappearance and her bicycle was reportedly stolen shortly before she went missing on December 20, 2024. On April 30, 2025, an unnamed, partially-decomposed body was under the floorboards of a residence in Kawasaki, which turned out to be the home of Okazaki’s ex-boyfriend. The body is yet to be identified, but the implications are clear.
A Young Woman Vanishes
What makes this case particularly troubling is the revelation that Okazaki had reached out to the police multiple times before she disappeared. Her family members report that between December 9 and December 20, she had called the police nine times. Many of these calls were made at unusual hours — some at 4 a.m., others at 7 a.m. — suggesting a level of distress that appears to have gone unrecognized.
When Okazaki’s family filed a missing person report, they emphasized the possibility of abduction, pointing to the broken window in her home as evidence. However, they claim police initially determined there was “no criminal element” to the case and were slow to take action. Particularly troubling is the allegation that police failed to collect fingerprint evidence from the broken window — a potential investigative oversight that has drawn sharp criticism.
The Family’s Perspective
Okazaki’s father, speaking in an interview on May 1, expressed frustration with how authorities handled his daughter’s repeated calls for help. When he inquired about these communications, the Rinko Police Station initially did not acknowledge them. Only after he discovered the call history himself through his daughter’s phone records did police confirm they had received her calls.
According to her father, Okazaki had been telling her grandmother she was afraid and believed someone might kill her just hours before some of these calls to police. Yet, according to what authorities eventually told him, the calls were supposedly only about her stolen bicycle.
“She was sending out an SOS to the police,” her father stated, conveying his belief that officers may have dismissed her concerns and missed an opportunity to intervene before her disappearance.
The family reportedly encountered significant bureaucratic obstacles when seeking help. When they attempted to file a criminal complaint, they were told, “Without the victim present, we cannot accept a criminal complaint” — creating a troubling catch-22 situation for cases involving missing persons who may be crime victims.
The police eventually conducted a search of her ex-boyfriend’s residence, where they discovered human remains. While authorities have not yet confirmed the identity of the remains, the discovery has intensified the investigation into Okazaki’s disappearance.
The Problem Persists
Okazaki’s case is tragically not an isolated incident in Japan, with incidents like the murders of Toshino Hirasawa, Miki Kawano and livestreamer Airi Sato all linked to stalking. In 2023, the number of restraining orders issued based on the stalker regulation law reached an all-time high of about 1,963 cases, while domestic violence inquiries rose 8.4% to an alarming 9,092 cases.
What’s particularly alarming is the prevalence of cases where violence escalated after victims had previously sought police assistance. While the raw numbers of reports have remained consistently high for years, the statistics likely underrepresent the true scope of the problem due to underreporting.
Japan enacted its Anti-Stalking Act in 2000 following a high-profile case in which a woman was murdered after police failed to act on her repeated complaints. The law has been strengthened several times since then, most recently in 2021, expanding the definition of stalking behavior and increasing penalties for offenders.
Despite these legislative improvements, implementation remains inconsistent. Legal experts point to problems in how risk is assessed, with police often requiring substantial evidence of imminent danger before taking protective measures, creating a dangerous gap between when a victim first reports stalking and when official protection mechanisms are activated.
