A peer-inspired dieting competition triggered the unhealthy lifestyle, but it wasn't only an eating disorder that haunted Sayaka Hashiba's late sister.
Hashiba, a 34-year-old Tokyo office worker, said her younger sister's behavior became visibly erratic when she was around 12 years old.
An athletic, upbeat girl with good grades, she nevertheless began adopting peculiar eating habits, including broccoli-only meals that quickly shredded her weight from 40 kilograms or so to around half of that in a matter of months. She started repeating routine activities, such as climbing up and down staircases and recounting each thing she had done since waking up in the morning.