The Disturbing Koga Assault Case and the Unexplained Gap Before Authorities Were Notified

Twenty-four hours with her lips sewn shut

On July 5, the Ibaraki Prefectural Police arrested Masae Sakurai (49), a resident of Morokawa in Koga City, on suspicion of assault causing injury after allegedly sewing together the lips of a woman who had been living with her.

According to investigators, Sakurai forced the victim to protrude her lips and keep them fixed in that position while she used a threaded needle to sew the upper and lower lips together. The two pieces of thread recovered from the scene were reportedly discolored by blood.

The crime came to light through the victim’s desperate attempt to seek help.

Taking advantage of a moment when she was unobserved, the woman escaped from the house and fled to a nearby shop. Unable to speak, she showed an employee a handwritten note that read:

“I can’t speak. Please call the police.”

After being taken into protective custody, the woman reportedly explained that:

“I was terrified of the suspect and couldn’t bring myself to run away immediately.”

Investigators believe that approximately 24 hours had passed between the time her lips were allegedly sewn shut and the time she escaped. During that period, she may have been unable to speak or eat at all.

Police are also carefully investigating whether the woman had been subjected to other forms of violence on a regular basis.

Several people, including Sakurai, her biological child, and individuals who had run away from home and had nowhere else to go, are believed to have been living together in the house where the incident occurred. The owner of a local restaurant frequented by the suspect in the past described the disturbing living conditions within the household.

“She would deliberately force the people living with her to stay outside in pouring rain and refuse to let them back into the house. It was essentially a form of bullying. I also heard that they weren’t given proper side dishes and were limited to extremely simple meals, such as rice balls seasoned only with salt.”

How such a distorted communal living arrangement came into existence remains unclear. According to the restaurant owner, in recent years Sakurai had been inviting women with nowhere else to go into her home through contacts she made online.

“Apparently, she continuously collected money from the residents, deducting it from the welfare payments they received under the pretext of charging boarding fees. At the same time, I also heard that the suspect had accumulated substantial debts because the residents repeatedly caused problems involving vehicles, and she had been complaining about the situation to people around her.”

At the same time, some people believe that the suspect herself received financial assistance and material support from men around her.

She divorced as soon as the money ran out

“She apparently had several men who had become devoted to her through social media and other channels. She would take different supporters with her when shopping for daily necessities and clothing and have them pay the bills on her behalf.”

Another local restaurant owner, who says he has known Sakurai for about 20 years, spoke about the changes in her lifestyle over the past several years.

“Ever since I first met her, she never seemed to settle down at a fixed address and moved frequently. She would come to the restaurant alone after work, still wearing her work clothes, and would always order the same kinds of noodle dishes and stir-fries. There are many food-processing factories and manual labor jobs in this area, and I believe she moved from one such job to another. There was nothing particularly luxurious about the belongings she carried, and she certainly didn’t appear to live the kind of lifestyle associated with expensive brands. Based on our everyday conversations and her behavior toward customers, I never imagined that she had the temperament to commit such a serious and violent act, so I was shocked.”

According to the restaurant owner, Sakurai had previously been married to a foreign man and is currently raising two sons, one in junior high school and the other in high school.

A person connected to a construction company where Sakurai reportedly worked for a short period, from the middle of April until the end of June this year, shared rumors that had circulated among acquaintances regarding her past behavior.

“There have long been rumors that she was extremely driven by financial desires from a young age and that she has been married and divorced four or five times. I also heard stories that she once married a wealthy man but divorced him immediately after his assets were exhausted. As for the victim who had recently been living with her, I heard there may have been disputes involving the welfare payments she was receiving.”

Sakurai is accused not only of financially exploiting vulnerable runaways by taking them into her home but also of displaying shocking brutality by allegedly sewing a woman’s lips shut.

Police are continuing to examine the evidence seized from the scene while carefully investigating the conflicts that arose within the communal living arrangement and determining whether there was a broader pattern of abuse.