An Akita man was arrested Monday night on suspicion of stalking, becoming the first person to be held under the new antistalking law that took effect Friday.
According to police, 24-year-old construction worker Fumikazu Yamamoto made five phone calls to his former girlfriend's workplace Sunday afternoon, urging her to meet and talk to him and threatening to brag about their past relationship to her acquaintances.
She filed a complaint Monday with Akita Prefectural Police, and investigators decided to arrest Yamamoto after determining that he posed a physical danger to the woman.
Yamamoto and the woman, who is in her 20s, started dating around 1997 but she tried to end the relationship a year later, police said.
The suspect refused to accept her decision and allegedly continued to monitor her movements. She consulted local police, and on Nov. 21, an officer ordered Yamamoto to stop following her.
Yamamoto promised to do so, but he apparently kept on harassing and intimidating her, police said. He reportedly made silent phone calls to her colleagues at work. Under the new law, stalkers face prison terms of up to a year and fines of up to 1 million yen if they ignore verbal warnings to desist.