A 53-year-old unemployed man has been arrested on suspicion of abandoning the corpse of his mother in Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Police said Takeshi Matsuyama has admitted to the charge and quoted him as saying, “I was afraid I would stop receiving my mother’s pension if people found out she was dead.”
According to police, Matsuyama kept his 79-year-old mother’s body at his home from the end of last month, when she is believed to have died, until Monday this week, Fuji TV reported.
The case came to light when a local welfare official, not having heard from her for awhile, visited the residence. After noticing a foul odor, the official returned to the ward office which contacted police. Police went to the apartment and found the woman’s remains in a bedroom.
Police are currently investigating the details surrounding the mother’s death.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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Do the hustle
That’s the way to show appreciation to your mum for brining you up. Just stash her body so you can collect her pension. What a parasitic loser!
Michael Jackson
Atare mae for unemployed losers
Goodlucktoyou
Is living in a very smelly apartment with your dead mothers body really worth ¥70000 a month?
sakurasuki
So ward office send sniffer to people home who illegible for pension money.
oyatoi
How about a moratorium on checking bicycle users credentials, and instead diverting manpower resources to a one off check to co firm that everybody in receipt of a pension is actually alive. Too hard basket?
qazwsx
I have a feeling this kind of thing is going to keep happening more and more as the hikikomori grow into middle age etc
quercetum
How do you have to report the death of a pension beneficiary, within one payment cycle?
Chico3
This really is sad and disrespectful to his mom and those who pay the pension. I'm sure it happens and the authorities know well about this. Crimes like this should definitely be punishable by jail and reimbursement.
Nathan Raymond
I bet all of your are judging this guy. But this guy was 53 and unemployed and probably spent his time taking care of his mother... After the mother died and the pension dried up, what do you expect this guy to do? I bet he can not get a job and with out the pension he was going to lose the house. I am not saying I would do what this guy did, but I understand why he did it. Personally, I would be happy to do something like drive a taxi or move out of the country to a place where it isnt so important to work.... but the way I see Japan, people do not have much choices and ways to make money and are not so open to leaving the country like me.... so I do not judge this the way I judge my own life..... I just think....these are Japanese people and they make decisions I can not comprehend and people are not so open and if they do not have a job they basically feel like they have no purpose. So to me this is about life and death and survival and when it comes to that...all bets are off and people are going to do what they need to do to survive...and all of the gaijin judging this can not understand because for them it is not about their own life and death..... but some one elses ...... yet they are so quick to judge and act morally superior.
Vince Black
@ Nathan
oh boo hoo.
He had options.
The pittance people get as pension here would never cover the cost of the rent anyway. So let's have none of this "losing the house" malarkey
He didn't want to work and he had a source of free income.
garypen
I would wager that this is not an uncommon practice.