Man’s body left in house since Jan; wife, 2 children arrested for collecting pension

Sadly, this is very common in Japan. This is why you need life insurance!

Generally true, but these were three people, all of working age. Two of prime working age. I find it hard to believe they couldn't make ends meet all living together like that.

they all need must be psychotic to leave their dad rot in a futon in a room next door.

Sadly, this is very common in Japan. This is why you need life insurance! If you have life insurance and you die, your family is taken care of at least for a few years after you pass. It isn't even expensive to have!

They must be living in poverty to have done this.

This situation would never happen in a first world country.

The Japanese dream is gone.

Just greedy and insane.

They were all young and healthy why not find a job? How they can live with the dead body inside their home?

Police said Tamura’s wife told them her husband died of natural causes and that they didn’t report his death because the family needed the money from his pension.

This is all too common here. This problem needs to be addressed. Don't just arrest them (of course I don't condone them defrauding the system to get free money! The kids are young and able to get money themselves. Then again.......corona happened), they need counseling for the months of dperession they have been through (living with a corpse of their loved one) and perhaps lower the funeral costs to an affordable rate to prevent people from living with a rotting corpse which causes other mental problems.

Huge problem in Japan and the government needs to figure out a way to prevent this, like allowing family members to continue collecting pensions or a portion of it if they are financially distressed. How much is it going to cost the tax payer to prosecute them all? Probably more than the pension they collected.

Mix a mental breakdown, with poverty, and crazy expensive prices of funerals.

...and corona.

Cannot blame them.

Happy Father's Day I guess.

@LifeAlertAus, 602miko &co

They were all young and healthy

all living together like that

the low low pension money

only means that neither were working

What do you actually know of this family ? You are imagine stuff not in the article. Does not seems to difficult to go for generalities or hypothesis form, other were able to it in the same trade.

she could easily get a full time job

Laws need to be changed if a wife divorces and gets 50%.

And even of Japan situation ? Married woman still tend to have difficulties to find and kept their job moreover a full time one. They are expected to be the carer of the family and available for it, so less possibility to get full-time job. If you got a arbeito, you mostly have no pension/health insurance rights (you can be added to the spouse if low income or if lucky your company will choose to enroll you).

https://www.jpsmart-club.com/pension/

https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a04601/

https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-the-workforce-japan/

If private equity had not pillaged pension funds and the gig economy made retirement benefits a distant memory, maybe there would not be this desperation to get the pension payments from an older generation(alive or not) who worked under equitable pension schemes.

LifeAlertAus, sadly life insurance here is not the pot of gold you think it is. In many cases it turns out to be a much smaller amount. I don't condone what they did, and wonder why the two children are not helping the mother and relying on their dead father's pension.

Two working age children plus mother needing money this way, only means that neither were working. Everyone relied on his pension. Lazy as f....

How do you know she didn't work. For several years now, if a wife divorces her husband she is entitled to 50% of all his pensions. I don't believe it's just the husband's money. It's the money of both of them. Many people consider a wife and mother at home taking care of domestic life is work. In some countries even suggestions they should be paid. Japan needs more children and someone must raise them.

Obviously she didn't work. If she did the low low pension money would not be needed. Laws need to be changed if a wife divorces and gets 50%. We have laws that stop that from happening, and America does as well. Any developed country has laws that make sense. The kids were grown up, she could easily get a full time job. Instead she prob chose to take care of her GROWN children.

Police in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, have arrested a 56-year-old woman, her 32-year-old daughter and 29-year-old son for failing to report the death of her 84-year-old husband and continuing to collect his pension.

Wow, "Mom" here was at a minimum 24 years old when she had her daughter, with this guy, who would have been 52 at most, IF in fact these two are his biological children.

Wow, dad was a late bloomer getting married to a 24 yo woman at 52 yo. Don't these people have life insurance to soften the blow.

How do we know this man wasn't her 2nd or 3rd husband?

I would like to correct one inaccuracy in the article. Japanese pensions are paid bimonthly, not monthly.

I had been in many countries and seen how people suffered to survive daily. Japan is such a blessed country where it's easy to find a job, save money....

So I still cannot understand how people can keep a dead body in the same living area because of pension money....

One of the hazards of marrying a much younger woman: having to continue working even after you die.

How do we know this man wasn't her 2nd or 3rd husband?

Right. Better check cold storage facilities.

Another one? It’s seems easy to rort the system if everything is so analogue.

Aha, that’s why japan has so many 100+ ;-)

they all need must be psychotic to leave their dad rot in a futon

Because funeral in Japan costs a fortune. 10M yen.

@expat

I made a mistake. I was trying to say ¥5000 a month equivant, but I said AUD by mistake. lol.

Gone are the days of the Japanese housewife who just collects/spends the husbands money.

I wish.

At the risk of assumption, what can we glean from the age difference in the couple, and the kids' possible attitudinal traits inherited from the mother? Unevidenced speculation, of course, but just curious.

When the husband was 28, the wife was a newborn. Obviously this has been the plan all along.

@Zichi

If the wife wanted money, she could have gotten a job. Gone are the days of the Japanese housewife who just collects/spends the husbands money.

Guess some people would rather live with a rotting corpse than get off their lazy entitled arses and work for a living. Unbelievable.

very difficult back then in the 1920s

things have changed over the last 100 years!

Just Unbelievable, they were living off him while alive, and wanted to do it while he's dead.

Japan is really scary .

@Markx

If you have good life insurance, and make sure to read the find print, there will be no worries. I pay 5000 AUD a month and I am covered for 700,000 AUD. This covers all kinds of cancers, etc. I am sure there is GOOD life insurance in Japan.