There's an almost dispassionate matter-of-factness in the way Risa Tanaka describes how she was tortured by her husband.

One of the methods he favored, she says, was to act as a police interrogator, asking senseless questions and, if he didn't like the answers, ramming the open end of an empty wine bottle into the side of her head.

"He would do it right here," she says, pointing to her temples, which are covered by her thick hair, dyed and arranged for an extra layer of disguise. "Sometimes it would go on for an hour or more. Words cannot describe the pain."