YOKOHAMA –

Kanagawa Prefectural Police admitted Thursday they failed to respond appropriately to a stalking-murder case in which a 20-year-old woman was found dead at her former boyfriend's home in Kawasaki in April.

In a review report, police acknowledged organizational problems, saying the initial response was inadequate and the response system had been ineffective.

"We take very seriously the grave consequence of a women being murdered, and we apologize for our inappropriate response," Kaoru Wada, chief of Kanagawa police, said at a news conference Thursday.

Since June last year, the victim, Asahi Okazaki, and her family had repeatedly consulted with the police about violence and stalking by Hideyuki Shirai, 28, who has been indicted on murder and other charges.

Shirai's alleged behavior ceased temporarily but resumed in December. However, the police did not handle the situation as a stalking case despite such reports from Okazaki, and she went missing around Dec. 20.

Her remains were found about four months later at Shirai's home, and her family had said that the police's response and investigation were inadequate. It was only in May that police announced the remains found were Okazaki's and arrested Shirai on suspicion of abandoning the body. Police later rearrested him for alleged stalking and murder.

In Thursday's report, the Kanagawa police said that its internal coordination and information-sharing were inadequate prior to Okazaki's disappearance, noting that the decision in November that her situation had settled down was made alone by the police station responsible for the case.

The report said the police's belief that her situation had been resolved and the police station staff's lack of relevant knowledge led to the failure to treat the situation as a stalking case when Okazaki consulted the police again in December.

"If an organized initial response had been made, a warning or a restraining order may have been issued, and measures to secure the victim's safety may have been taken," the report said.

Despite the National Police Agency's instructions for each prefectural police headquarters to ensure its involvement in personal safety cases and cooperation between the community safety and criminal investigation divisions on these cases, the Kanagawa police department lacked guidelines specifying its headquarters' roles, and its headquarters failed to provide continuous instructions and advice to the police station.

The report also pointed out organizational flaws at the police station, including a lack of supervision by the station's head.

Even after Okazaki went missing, the police station's shortcomings and the lack of cooperation with the prefectural police headquarters remained unaddressed.

As information and requests from her family were neglected, the report said the Kanagawa police missed "opportunities to reassess the danger and urgency (of the case) and to step up the investigation."

The report concluded that the police should have launched an investigation into the case when Shirai admitted to some of the stalking allegations on Dec. 26.

On Thursday, the NPA issued a notice to prefectural police nationwide, calling for senior police officials to be deployed to oversee information sharing and other efforts to ensure cooperation between the community safety and criminal investigation divisions.

Following a number of stalking cases that led to murders, laws have been made or amended and notices have been issued to prefectural police to strengthen their responses.

In 2000, the stalking regulation law was enacted following a 1999 case in which a female university student was killed by her ex-boyfriend after being stalked.

However, similar cases have continued to surface. According to an NPA report, a record 1,341 arrests were made for violating the stalking law last year, while 2,415 restraining orders were issued the same year, also a record high.