Woman hides for year in bedroom cupboard

A homeless woman has been caught after spending a year living undetected in a man's cupboard.

The woman sneaked into his house in Japan and was only discovered after he became suspicious over the mysterious disappearance of food.

Police found the 58-year-old hiding in the top compartment of the cupboard in a bedroom in Kasuya.

The homeowner had installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," a spokesman said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

The cupboard is part of a Japanese-style room, one of several in the single-storey house.

Police were investigating how she managed to go in and out unnoticed, as well as details of her life inside the closet, and if she had taken anything else besides food.

She had moved a mattress into the small space and apparently even took showers, the spokesman said, calling the woman "neat and clean".