A few months ago, news sites around the world covered the story of Miyoko Kawahara like a blanket. Kawahara was the woman who blasted her 64-year-old neighbor with loud music and insults for 2-1/2 years before the authorities finally stepped in and arrested her.

The neighbor recorded videos of Kawahara screaming (”Move out! Move out! Hurry up and move out!”) at the top of her lungs in time with each strike as she beat the dust out of her futon on the veranda in the morning. The good folks over at conbinibento.com put together a video compilation of Kawahara in action, which you can view by clicking here.

Kawahara made the news again today when she pled “not guilty” to charges of inflicting violence and injury on her neighbor. She admits to playing the music, but claims that the volume was “not unbearable.”

Miyoko Kawahara admitted she aimed her portable stereo toward the home of the 64-year-old neighbor almost 24 hours a day between November 2002 and last April.

But she denied that the music was so loud that it caused physical damage to the neighbor, including headaches and sleepless nights.

According to prosecutors, Kawahara made a hole in her back door to ensure that the racket from her portable stereo reached her neighbor’s house in Heguri, Nara Prefecture.

The two homes are about 6 meters apart.

Judging from what I have seen in the videos, Kawahara’s lawyers really have their work cut out for them.

Trouble started when Kawahara developed a grudge against her neighbor in 1989 after the older woman’s family moved in but did not come over to greet her, as is often the custom in Japan. A light that was reportedly too bright, a car that was parked the wrong way, and other incidents Kawahara perceived as slights added fuel to the feud over the years, apparently driving Kawahara over the edge and firmly into the realm of battydom.