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Japan's number of elderly stalkers has increased more than 450 percent in the last 10 years, with over 1,800 stalking incidents being reported last year, according to the National Police Agency. The number is almost four times higher than the one reported in 2003.

The number of stalkers aged 70 and older jumped to 505, a 460 percent increase from a decade ago.

Stalking cases have exploded in the last year. The number of reported cases hit 19,920 in 2012, up 36.3 percent on the previous year. It is the highest number since the police first started tracking the crime in 2000, the year when stalking became illegal.

Lately, the complaints have been filed mostly for senior stalkers, who make up 9 percent of all the reported stalking cases, compared with an estimated 3 percent in 2003.

The cause might be “a heightened sense of both desperation and entitlement which causes elderly widowers to relentlessly pursue younger women,” said Akiko Kobayakawa, president of a victim-support organization called Humanity.

Another reason could be Japan's fast aging population and the fact that now there are simply more old people, according to the international press. Though Japan’s population is roughly the same size it was in 2000, more than 30 percent of Japanese are now aged 60 and over, compared with 24 percent in 2000.