This archive report was first published on 4 December 2019.
On December 4, 2019, a 71-year-old Japanese pensioner, Akitoshi Okamoto, was arrested for making an excessive number of complaint calls to a phone company.
According to Tokyo police, Okamoto made hundreds of toll-free calls over eight days to the customer service section of KDDI, a major telephone operator.
However, this was not an isolated incident. Media outlets reported that Okamoto made thousands more calls from public pay phones to voice his displeasure with the company and insult customer service staff.
"He demanded that KDDI staff come to him to apologise for violating his contract. He also repeatedly hung up his calls immediately after placing them," a police spokesman said.
Okamoto has been arrested on suspicion of "fraudulent obstruction of business".
Japan is experiencing an increasing number of social problems caused by its rapidly ageing population, including old drivers causing fatal car accidents and elderly passengers becoming violent towards railway staff.
