Nasty neighbour

A woman was arrested earlier this week in Nara for persistently harassing one of her neighbours.

Natsuko Mitsuyama, a 31-year-old housewife, has been charged with inflicting bodily harm on an unnamed 30-year-old woman who lives in the same apartment building.

As well as the alleged physical assault, Ms Mitsuyama conducted a deranged and determined mental campaign against her neighbour. She repeatedly followed her victim to and from work, and made thousands of phone calls (sometimes more than one hundred a day) to her office. Many of these were abusive, including some to the poor woman’s colleagues suggesting (in no uncertain terms) that she should be fired.

Not surprisingly, being subjected to this mental and physical attack resulted in the unfortunate woman suffering from depression, insomnia, and headaches. But whilst our sympathy lies with the victim, there’s the issue of what she did to warrant such a persistent and perverse campaign.

Was she hosting repeated late-night parties? Playing loud music at all hours of the day and night? Or even bringing undesirable types back to the apartment building?

No, it seems that she once had the temerity to ignore one of her tormentor’s good wishes. “It all started because she ignored my greeting” the maniacal Mitsuyama told the police, before admitting to making harassing phone calls but denying the other allegations against her.

All I can say is that it’s a good job she doesn’t live in Tokyo. I’m lucky if my neighbours can be bothered to glance in my general direction, let alone make the effort of uttering a polite greeting.