Police in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, have arrested a 67-year-old unemployed man after the body of his mother, who was in her 80s, was found in their apartment.
According to police, Yoichi Watanabe said that his mother died last October and that he kept the body in her room, Sendai TV reported. Police visited the house on Friday after a neighbor contacted them and said the woman hadn’t been seen for several months.
Police said there were no signs of external injury on the woman’s remains and added that an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause for death.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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Lindsay
Another pension skeleton.
snowymountainhell
No words here (6am) of a statement by the son upon his arrest. The autopsy & toxicology reports will give better insight as to if he was a murderer, another manipulative pension freeloader and/or just too lazy/mentally ill to seek help with his mom’s body.
Ken Holcomb
Seems like a good idea for the national government to come up with some kind of information campaign to educate people on this issue.
Everyday at 16:00 our local city office makes an announcement over the public PA system reminding citizens of the ongoing COVID reduction measures in place. Maybe add a line or two about how to report a family death, the penalties for not reporting same, and the apparently not too obvious health issues associated with keeping rotting bodies in your home.
Grampus
I never knew this was a 'thing' till I came to Japan. Seems to happen so often. Gross, weird and disrespectful to the deceased all at the same time.
Mocheake
Living with the dead seems fairly common here.
Btang
.......
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then you know the below the surface real cold social atmosphere here, among most.
give me thumbs up if you feel me.
jalan5
@Mocheake
"Living with the dead seems fairly common here."
IMO: It seems fairly that it does not faze such.
JerseyDevil
purple_depressed_bacon
Why? Seriously, why? Aside from the rancid smell of a decomposing body, wasn't he at all creeped out by the fact that he was living with a dead body in the next room??! Why are these incidents so prevalent in Japan? Are people so desperate for cash that they're willing to let a corpse rot in their home just to cash in on the pension checks or do they genuinely not know what to do if someone dies at home? It's so disturbing.
602miko
Why they can live a normal life with the corpse living together?