'Noise pollution granny' set to crank up neighborhood again

[Anchorman]

"She's bound to be as loud as always. Are we ever going to have peace and quiet again? I've really had enough," a resident of the small Nara Prefecture town of Heguri tells Weekly Playboy (5/7-14).

Worrying the resident is the imminent return to Heguri of its most infamous resident -- a 60-year-old woman called Miyoko Kawahara.

Kawahara is currently serving time following a conviction for assault. And Kawahara's deadly weapon was a CD player she used to play music at full volume, 24 hours a day. Kawahara punctuated her aural onslaught with all manner of noise-making, like amplifying the sound of her beating her futons, screaming and letting off sirens. Her amplified antics became legend as the "Noise Pollution Granny" on Japan's Internet following her arrest in April 2005.

But Kawahara has continuously denied any wrongdoing throughout a two-year long trial that recently ended when the Osaka High Court confirmed her conviction by sentencing her to 20 months imprisonment.

It's her refusal to acknowledge she hurt her neighbors that now has them scared.

"Even though Kawahara was sentenced to 20 months in prison, with time served taken into account, she's only got another 100 days or so of her sentence to go. The 'Noise Pollution Granny' could be out of jail by July," a Heguri resident tells Weekly Playboy. "She'll probably stay with relatives in Osaka for a while, but once she's out it's only a matter of time before she comes back to her own home in Heguri."

Another resident fears Kawahara's reprisals.

"She's never expressed a single word of regret, even at her trial. All she's ever done is complain about why she's being arrested," the resident says. "All she's done so far is make noise and smash the gate on one of her neighbor's houses, but I wonder whether she'll limit herself to that when she gets out? There'll be a lot of built up anger inside her and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she went to even more drastic steps."

Acting as a defense for the terrified residents is an ordinance the Heguri Municipal Government enacted in March last year in response to the Kawahara case. The ordinance outlaws anybody from making an excessive amount of noise within the town. Residents say the legislation is no deterrent, though.

"It's useless," one neighbor tells Weekly Playboy. "All the ordinance does is give the pen pushers permission to come into the area, measure the decibel level and then issue a warning if it's too loud. That's it. There are no penalties for offenders or anything. It's of no help to us at all." (By Ryann Connell)