A woman has been arrested in Japan for allegedly sewing her housemate’s lip shut. The accused, identified as Masae Sakurai, 49, was arrested on Monday (Jul 6) on suspicion of assault “with a needle and thread” in the city of Koga. The 42-year-old 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.
The victim escaped the house wearing a white mask and rushed to a nearby shop where she held up a piece of paper reading, “please help me”. Subsequently, an employee at the shop informed the police, according to a report in South China Morning Post.
The woman told police that Sakurai “became angry over a trouble” and that her lips were sewn shut as a result. Her mouth had reportedly been pierced multiple times with a needle from beneath her nose to below her lower lip, with the lips then stitched together. The thread was said to have passed through the inside of her mouth, making the stitching hard to spot from the outside.
Police did not disclose the extent of her injuries but said her life was not in danger. The victim said she had been too afraid of Sakurai to leave the house sooner, and only managed to escape when Sakurai was out.
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Authorities are looking into the relationship between the two women and have not said whether Sakurai has admitted to the assault. They are also investigating unconfirmed reports that another person had been living in the house with the two women.
Acquaintances of Sakurai told TV Asahi that she had been letting people who had run away from home stay at the house and had helped them find jobs. One man, 54, said he visited the shared house in November and saw two or three women along with a male who appeared to be of junior or senior high school age.
A 49-year-old woman who used to work with Sakurai said she learned around three years ago that the suspect had been “taking care of girls who have nowhere to go” after being contacted by their parents.
