TOKYO: Japanese police arrested a woman near Tokyo for allegedly sewing shut the lips of her housemate, officials said on Thursday.

The 42-year-old female victim escaped the house in the city of Koga, rushed to a nearby shop and held up a piece of paper that read “please help me”, Makoto Hiyama, a senior local police official, said.

Police in the eastern prefecture of Ibaraki — where Koga is located — later arrested 49-year-old Masae Sakurai “on suspicion of assault,” according to a prefectural police spokesman.

Sakurai lived with the victim at the time of the June 29 alleged incident when she sewed her housemate’s “lips with a needle and thread”, the spokesman said, adding that she was arrested on Monday. Police are investigating the incident, including unconfirmed information that there was another person living at the house, according to Hiyama.

The injured woman told police “the suspect became angry over a trouble and my lips were sewed”, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026