Teruko Nakazawa talking with her former parolee (forefront) in the smoking room of a cafe in Tokyo. - AFP
TOKYO: Teruko Nakazawa once intervened in a knife fight between an ex-offender and their mother -- all in a day's unpaid work for Japan's army of volunteer probation officers.
The 83-year-old, who jokes she is a "punk" as she puffs on a cigarette, devoted decades to supervising and helping rehabilitate convicted criminals on parole.
