The Saitama Prefectural Police in Japan arrested a 69-year-old man on suspicion of obstructing police in the performance of their duties, after he contacted the Kawaguchi Police Station in Japan more than 1,300 times in one month, using abusive language to file complaints.

The police stated that the suspect, Yoshio Shimada, who lives in Nishikawaguchi City, made 1,307 calls to the police station by July 9, according to the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation "NHK".

The police reported that the accused repeatedly insulted everyone who answered the phone with comments like "You are fired" and "You are tax thieves and fools" and "I need an arrest warrant".

The police confirmed that Shimada made the calls from his mobile phone and warned him about similar nuisance calls before.

The Japanese police quoted Shimada as saying: "I think I just called many times."

- The accused is not the first

In a similar incident, Japanese police arrested a 51-year-old woman last year on charges of disturbing the authorities after she made 2,761 false emergency calls over three years.

Niuruko Hatagami, who is from Chiba Prefecture east of Tokyo, made those calls between August 2020 and May 2023.
The British newspaper "Metro" reported that the woman was arrested after she obstructed local firefighting operations, according to police announcements.

The Matsudo Fire Department in Japan had filed a complaint with the police on June 20, while the woman admitted that she made the calls to the police because she felt lonely and wanted to receive attention.

The woman claimed in her calls that she was suffering from stomach pain, leg pain, and other symptoms, and she always refused medical assistance.

According to reports by "Russia Today", between August 2020 and May 2023, the woman made repeated calls requesting the Matsudo Fire Department to send ambulances, often stating that she was complaining about stomach pain, had taken an overdose of medication, or had severe leg pain among other symptoms.

When ambulances arrived at her home, she would refuse to be taken to the hospital, saying: "I don't want to take an ambulance and I am not the one who called you."

Despite receiving warnings from the fire department and the police, she continued to make emergency calls which led to her arrest.

- Feelings of loneliness in Japan
Estimates suggest that nearly 1.5 million people suffer from loneliness in Japan, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic which forced people to stay inside their homes.

A survey conducted by the Japanese Agency for Children and Families in November found that nearly 2% of participants aged 15 to 64 were identified as "hikikomori," a Japanese term referring to those who have withdrawn from social communication.

In February 2021, the Japanese government appointed Tetsushi Sakamoto as Minister of Loneliness in an attempt to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on social isolation.

The then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stated: "Women suffer from isolation more than men, and the number of suicide cases is on the rise."

It is noteworthy that in 2013, a 44-year-old Japanese woman was arrested after making around 15,000 calls to the police over six months, noting that law enforcement officials had warned her at her home more than 60 times before her arrest.