Police in Tokyo on Tuesday arrested an 80-year-old man on suspicion of killing his visually impaired 85-year-old wife at their apartment.
According to police, Tomosada Yoshida strangled his wife Setsuko with an electric appliance cord as she slept in her bed sometime on Sunday night, Kyodo News reported.
Yoshida’s younger sister, who lives elsewhere, contacted police on Monday afternoon and said the ward office had called her to say they hadn’t bene able to get in touch with Yoshida for some time.
Police went to the apartment on Monday night and found Setsuko’s body.
Police said Yoshida has admitted to killing wife, who also suffered from dementia, and quoted him as saying she was getting violent toward him in recent months as he tried to look after her and that he couldn’t take it anymore.
Police said the couple lived alone and that Yoshida had been his wife’s caregiver since she became visually impaired seven years ago.
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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Yubaru
Another example of the problems associated with a system that never prepared itself to handle an aging population.
Truly sad
almakukac
Yes. In a country where the LDP was almost continuously in power fore more than 60 years! So this systematic failure is no-one else's but their fault. They had the chance, they had the money, they had the power and they did nothing. Even though this problem was clear for decades now.
kurisupisu
I am more and more of the opinion that help for the aged is a extremely pressing.
Coincidentally, in Japan, I’ve never met a social worker in all my time spent here.
Are there so few of them?
However, it appears that there is a dying need for social workers to assess the vulnerable and the government to provide aid for people that cannot cope with circumstances like these.
Mark
Again!?
Yubaru
Food for thought comment here.
While it’s a popular, and easy excuse, to point fingers at the LDP, meaning the national government, for many of the problems associated with cases like this, people should be focusing on their local municipal offices first! The national government may provide funding for social security and social welfare but it’s the local municipal officials who actually create policies.
Cases like this happen because of the fault of the LOCAL municipalities not providing support for elderly, in cases like this. The local municipal office has more information and is better prepared to assist than expecting an elected LDP official to do something.
Yes LDP creates the policies and funds them, but it’s the legions of “komuin” who do the actual leg work to carry them out, and municipal offices are famous for NOT providing assistance or information, if you don’t “ask” a direct or point question or request services. They are loathe to provide information or be open!
Alongfortheride
So where is Japans healthcare that people pay into all their working lives?!! An 80 yr old man should not have to be the caregiver to his 80 yr old blind wife who has dementia!
wallace
You still pay for healthcare after retiring.
u_s__reamer
Society (yes, you, me and them) cannot wash its hands clean of such individual tragedies. Social values need revising and the reeducation of the electorate and of those in government so that our taxes take more responsibility for our fellow-citizens.
John-San
Japan is going through a new society problem of Eldercide. These murders are not committed by anger but cause by living in poverty. If you double the age pension today these murders will stop tomorrow.
John-San
If you are going to mark down a fair observational opinion. At least have the confidence to counter the opinion and the reasoning. So I have ask what prompts his type of behaviour ? I take a punt on bigotry.
njca4
I really feel for the old husband in this story. They spent the best years of their lives together, but after seeing his wife's physical and mental condition detoriorate, he snapped and ended both if their lives. At the end of the day, he's the one in the wrong to resort to murder, but we have such a huge percentage of the population over the age of 65 that I can't imagine how many people we would need to have in the healthcare industry to support everyone in this kind of situation.
You're not wrong John-San, there is definitely a problem here. Doubling the pension would really help old people for sure, but that's going to take a huge chunk of money from younger working people's salaries.
John-San
Njca. The people who should be paying is the elites who allow for such a pension system. They are the one who profited the most out off the working class and should be made to pay for a decent pension for these pensioner seeing if not for their devoted hard work the elites would not be in a wealthy position.
njca4
John-SanToday 06:06 pm JST
That's a popular line to take, but if you try to squeeze too much out of wealthy people, they tend to start looking elsewhere to live and pay taxes.
nosuke
Living alone is the best and you don’t have to worry about this stuff we hear almost like a broken record
kaimycahl
@John-San I can agree partly that some of the eldercide is caused by living in poverty but there's other issue and I don't think giving them more money would solve the problems. Also on another note: If you are here to expect a response you could forget it, most of the posters here only have confidence to hit the -/+ with out logically thinking why they voted up or down. Also on a larger note many probably don't because JT won't allow it and ask you to read their rules! I would be surprised if this reply last!
If you are going to mark down a fair observational opinion. At least have the confidence to counter the opinion and the reasoning. So I have ask what prompts his type of behaviour ? I take a punt on bigotry.
justasking
An elderly friend who was fiercely independent had not been found until days after passing and the family called the police to do a welfare check and that friend had passed days earlier.
The sadness for the elderly like this couple with very little support is just sad.