Woman arrested in Japan for sewing roommate’s lips together
The woman and the victim were flatmates, and the victim had been ‘too scared to run away’ before the incident
A 49-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly sewing together the lips of a woman she was living with, according to local police.
Masae Sakurai, a part-time worker living in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of injuring the 42-year-old woman by sewing her lips together with a needle and thread at Sakurai’s house on June 29.
The victim, who had been living with Sakurai since around April 2025, told the police that she “had been too scared to run away” before the incident, according to the police.
The injured woman fled to a nearby shop and showed a note asking for help. An employee called the police at around 1.30pm on June 30.
The police have not disclosed whether Sakurai has admitted to the allegations. They also believe other people living at the house may have been present during the incident.
A 54-year-old acquaintance of Sakurai who visited the house in November told reporters on Wednesday that he had seen “two or three women and a male around the age of a junior or senior high school student”.