Intimate partner violence is the most common kind of aggression experienced by women worldwide. In Japan, the concept of the battered wife now also includes the battered parent or grandparent. This phenomenon is now so widespread that it has become a global public health issue.

After the National Police Agency changed its policies on domestic violence in 2011, there has been a dramatic surge in the number of reported cases, from 28,158 in 2009 to 49,533 in 2013. A significant portion of women suffered physical violence and an important proportion among them also suffer from psychological violence. However, because of cultural norms, many women do not report the abuse.

In 2015, a government report stated that 10 percent of women had been victims of harassment or stalking, and 29 percent among them said that they feared for their lives. Of 3,544 respondents to a government survey, 11 percent of women said that they had experienced harassment from the opposite sex, while 4 percent of men admitted the same. Of all those surveyed, just 10 percent of women reported the cases to the police and only 3 percent of men.