Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
The bodies of a 72-year-old man, his 71-year-old wife and his 95-year-old mother have been found at their farmhouse in Sekikawa village, Niigata Prefecture, in what police believe was a murder-suicide.
According to police, the bodies were identified as Muneo Togashi, his wife Kazui and his mother Matsu. Police said the bodies were found by Togashi’s younger sister at around 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sankei Shimbun reported.
Police said Kazui and Matsu, who was bedridden, were lying on futons with strangulation marks on their necks, while Togashi was found outside in a shed where he had apparently hanged himself.
Police said there were no signs that anyone had broken into the home and ransacked it. They believe Togashi killed his wife and mother, and then hanged himself.
A neighbor told local media that Togashi’s health had been poor since last year and he was worried about the future of the farm.
© Japan Today
4 Comments
Login to comment
Maria
Two bed-ridden elderly woman, and an elderly, ailing, man under a huge amount of stress, and nothing seemed likely to improve. What a dreadful situation.
borscht
Did the women agree or was the man depressed, sick, and over-worked that made him believe death was the only alternative?
sir_bentley28
This was the WORST way of dealing with the future of the farm! He could've sold it and used the money to aid his wife and mother's health! What a sad loss.
BelCanto
Maybe, maybe not. Sekikawa is a farming village of a little over 5,000 people currently, experiencing steady depopulation like declining rural towns all over Japan. (Found the census data to confirm this.) You can only sell if you have a buyer, and there are quite possibly no buyers for farmland in Sekikawa.
I'm NOT disagreeing that this is tragic, and that his actions were terribly wrong. But for many thousands of older folks in rural Japan, there just aren't that many good options.