Photo/Illutration Yoichi Okai, head police officer, who patrols Nagoya’s Naka Ward (Chika Yamamoto)

NAGOYA--On a recent morning around 6 a.m., Mineko Matsui rushed to the front gate of her home to check her mailbox.

In it, a card sat under her morning paper.

“It was raining cats and dogs,” was written on the card in roundish letters, somewhat blotched by the rain. 

The card was written and dropped off by Yoichi Okai, a police officer who patrolled around her house the night before.

Matsui, 77, was thankful that Okai still made his usual nightly rounds despite the heavy downpour. She looked at the card appreciatively for a while and smiled.

The patrol cards began arriving at her house in Nagoya’s Naka Ward in December after she discovered that a glass window in her kitchen door near the keyhole was broken one morning

She became extremely anxious because it was the first time she's experienced such an incident in the nearly 15 years that she's lived in her house alone.

So she reported it to the police. Soon, Okai, the head patrol officer, came to her house.

“We will begin patrolling from tonight,” he reassured her with a smile. 

The following morning, she discovered a police card inside her mailbox, which notified that her that they had patrolled around her house.

She expected that police would soon stop leaving the cards after two or three times. But the cards kept arriving even after the new year started, about once every three days.

Matsui never saw Okai drop off the card himself. It seems that he does so late at night or in the early hours of the morning as he makes his rounds. 

And his patrol cards never fail to include a comment in his now-familiar roundish letters.

“Happy New Year,” the card said on New Year’s Day. After a snowy day, his comment read, “It really is freezing, isn’t it?”

Matsui places his patrol card on a table for half a day or so as it makes her happy when she sees it while eating or while tidying up.

After her two daughters moved out after getting married, it became common for her to spend an entire day without talking to anyone. 

Okai’s cards became something she looks forward to.

On the card dropped off on June 1, the officer said, “Incidentally, today is my birthday.”

Matsui wanted to celebrate his birthday as she appreciated his gesture of adding kind words on the cards.

So she went to the police station where he is posted with a gift of chocolates and rice cookies, but Okai was not there that day.

She left him a message that read: “Happy birthday. I will turn 77 this month.”

A few days later, Matsui found an envelope in her mailbox.

“Happy birthday and congratulations on the 77th anniversary of your birth,” the birthday card said. “It is getting hotter. I hope you are doing well.”

Matsui was stunned, and soon, she felt filled with warmth.

The birthday card meant a great deal to her.

The only person who came to see her to celebrate her birthday over the past several years was her niece, who lived in her neighborhood.

It was the first time in many years that a person other than a relative remembered her special day and wished her a happy birthday.

Matsui put the card on top of the box where she keeps all the patrol cards she has received.

When her niece came to see her, Matsui showed the birthday card to her, saying, “This is my treasure.”

Now, she needs to look for a new box for more police patrol cards as the current box is almost full with nearly 100.

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