Police report big surge in stalking among seniors

There’s been a lot of media attention about stalking recently, not least due to the sad case of 18-year-old Saaya Suzuki, murdered by a stalker earlier this month.

Now comes another odd twist on the situation.

The National Police Agency (NPA) has reported a 3.8 increase on incidents of stalking by citizens over 60 over the last decade.

So much for the golden years.

Apparently stalking is on the increase in general, though the rise is much more notable for pensioners.

Stalkers in their sixties jumped from 383 in 2003 to 1,329 in 2012, plus there was an increase from 90 to 505 of guys in their seventies.

That friendly old chap wandering around the neighborhood might not be as friendly as you thought, you know. With time on their hands, they may look for ways to entertain themselves…

Support group Humanity was set up in 1999 and since then has handled around 1,500 cases of stalking. It says that 20% have involved men over 60.

There are reports of elderly men stalking women much, much younger, as well as women their same age.

In Hyogo in 2011, one man in his eighties forced his way into the home of a woman in her seventies who had once had an affair with him. His wife had just died and he was pleading that the woman be with him so he had someone to die with.

Another 76-year-old man called a waitress in her thirties 62 times over a two-day period!