Police in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, have arrested a 70-year-old man on suspicion of abandoning his wife’s body at their home for over two years.
According to police, Yoshiyuki Shinya, who was arrested on Sunday, said his wife Yuriko, then 74, died at their home in April 2019, Sankei Shimbun reported. Shinya visited Iwaki-Higashi Police Station on the night of June 26 and said that his wife had passed away.
However, he did not say why he had waited two years to report her death. Police said an autopsy will be held to determine the cause of death.
A neighbor was quoted by local media as saying that Shinya appeared to be “a normal person” who always greeted passersby.
© Japan Today
24 Comments
Login to comment
bokuda
Hiding death bodies at home its becoming a trend.
Tom Young
Perhaps he needed it to survive.
purple_depressed_bacon
Is this an emerging pattern in Japan or has this always been an issue? Either way, it's very unnerving.
wanderlust
Abandon? He kept her at home! Probably collecting her pension money.
Laguna
Can't judge unless you know his mental state. In Japan, remains are generally cremated. I absolutely cannot imagine doing that to my wife.
Kumagaijin
If he had dug a hole in the forest somewhere and buried her, would they have still charged him with abandonment?
I've read that transporting a body to be cremated cost about 300,000 yen, while cremation is from 10,000 to 50,000 yen. This could be a factor why some people don't report deaths of family members. Meanwhile, the average funeral is over 2 million yen.
http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat18/sub114/item604.html
serendipitous1
Such cases are just plain weird. Did he have a permanently blocked nose or something? I would think the smell would penetrate most masks......
satoshi matsuda
i guess it bec of pension.
Frapoke
Seems to be a Japanese thing….
thaonephil
That must have been really hard, living with the corpse of someone you loved for two years!
I wonder what made him report it now.
kurisupisu
He’ll get off the charge of abandonment real easy!
TheReds
Keeping something in your house doesn't sound like abandoning. Or does it mean that after you die you have no freedom and the only place you can go is the graveyard or crematory? Just kidding, anyway.
CrashTestDummy
Extremely creepy. You really wonder what the underlying reasons were.
Grant
I am slightly disgusted by all of you're stock basic emotionless responses.
You do not know the situation fully or the people in question, maybe the poor old man couldn't bare to say goodbye to his wife you never know.
602miko
Where is ur heart old man for 2 years u abondoned ur wife dead body. Hoping no one will do the same things for u. RIP woman may ur soul rest in peace.
bokuda
There's an obvious dysfunctionality in the society.
Normal countries do not keep corpses for years to root.
Why is that happening?
Dirk T
Funerals are generally a racket but the Japanese take it up a notch.
r
Bjorn Tomention
He loved her and just couldnt let her go ?
Commodore Perry
zichiJune 28 06:46 pm JST
Might be hard for that person to do when already dead.