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Police in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, have arrested an 80-year-old man on suspicion of murder after he threw oil on his 79-year-old wife and set fire to her inside a car.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 2:30 p.m. on Friday. A passerby called police and said there was a person on fire in the front passenger seat of a car in a vacant lot, Fuji TV reported.
Police and firefighters rushed to the scene and found the woman, Masuko Miyabara, with burns all over her body. She was taken to hospital where she died Friday night.
Police said her husband, Masahiro Miyabara, who was found nearby in another car with burns to his legs, has admitted to the crime. He told police he lost his temper after he and his wife had an argument. He was quoted as saying he threw oil on her and used his cigarette lighter to ignite it.
Police said the couple had been living apart.
© Japan Today
13 Comments
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HARRYO
I guess a divorce was out of the question. I don't know what the argument was about or why they lived apart but was this such a bad relationship that he had to set her on fire ?? Wonder if they had children ??? Such a sad ending.
nandakandamanda
Sensei258, you are correct. ‘Abura’ is a catch-all word not explained properly in most J-E dictionaries, it but means ‘fuel’ colloquially. “We need abura for the car/boat” means “the combustible stuff that powers the engine”.
When the Japanese mean what we think of as oil, they use the word ‘Oiru’ (oiru kokan = an oil change) except in situations like yuatsu for hydraulic pressure.
kazetsukai
Irrational behavior to the observer and nonparticipant, but for the perpetrator it may have been an alternative reaction or action to to some cause with some (meaningful to him) rational and reason. Some action is instantaneous and some after long accumulated (something) which cause or force such action.
However, these actions appear to be much more frequent and also much more heinous in recent reports. Such frequency and similarity in age (seniors) seem to indicate a much more serious deep rooted social and cultural problem in Japan.
From children's irrational and violent harassment of other children, parents and teachers to young mothers abandoning new born children to children killing their parents and a family member killing their family members all seem to be a problem for the entire society. Almost every month bodies are found in old homes and apartments. It may not be "just" and "incidental" problem for Japan.
kurisupisu
Mental instability is a problem in Japan...
sensei258
I have to wonder if "oil" is a misinterpretation, maybe it was gasoline or lighter fluid
Kobe White Bar Owner
50 + years of pent up aggression due to poor communication skills, emotional understand and a lack of empathy. Cluster b psychological disorder run rife here. RIP
robotxparty
Hmm, thanks for calling the police and informing them of a human currently on fire, but perhaps that's a call to be made after you make a 5% effort to put out the flames - not watch her melting in the car.
semperfi
It's always shocking and surprising that couples harbour so much rage for so long and then it finally explodes in such hideous ways..
How terrifying and traumatic for the woman !
Disillusioned
So, the were estranged and had been living apart. There's some seriously delusional rage going on in his head to set someone on fire. It's not as if he just snapped and choked or stabbed her. He meditated over this and came back with the kerosine to burn her. Wow! Just, WOW!
Slickdrifter
An evil man. At 80 years old. What are they going to for sentacing? Horrible way to go.
gogogo
Crazy!
Ah_so
Deeply unpleasant. An excruciating way to die.
What could have been so serious that he decided to kill his wife in a fit of rage that hasn't occurred in the presumably 50-odd years of their marriage previously?
Lindsay
Wow! That’s is just macabre!