A 38-year-old man has been arrested for abandoning the body of his 69-year-old father who died at his home in Oyama City, Tochigi Prefecture, in January.
According to police, Hajime Kikuchi, a company employee from Shiki City, Saitama Prefecture, is suspected of abandoning the body of his father, Yoji, at his home after finding him dead, NTV reported. Kikuchi and his father lived separately, but Kikuchi would regularly visit him to see if he was OK.
On March 8, the caretaker of Yoji's home visited the house to check up on him and discovered his body. An autopsy revealed the cause of death as hypothermia.
Police said Kikuchi told them that he found his father’s body during his last visit in January this year, but didn't report it because he didn't have money for a funeral.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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Gaijinjland
Pretty sure the authorities will take the body and put it in a freezer or cremate it if you absolutely have no money.
IMadeAnAccountJustForThis
Wow. Modern day Japan and a 69 year old person dies of hypothermia in their home.
What a sad state of affairs.
NZ
very unusual excuse.
to make so called funeral you dont need tons of money especially if you are low income person.
if he have asked at local city office they could help with very basics like body cremation etc.
WA4TKG
T I J, “This is Japan”
Sound familiar ?
wallace
Old people have died from hypothermia in winter for many decades.
@Japan Glimpsed
Modern day, any day everywhere.
Yes, somewhat. Up to 50,000 in Niigata City, about half what the cheapest plan costs.
Paperwork, mendokusai, and the son doesn't live in Tochigi.
@Japan Glimpsed
Yes. Sad, but true. The son guilty of neglect? Debatable. Those suggesting that this is a Japan thing are manuke.
Roten
I can understand the son's position here. It reminds me of the 1984 Juzo Itami film お葬式, or The Funeral, where Itami has a strong social commentary on funerals in Japan, and family issues surrounding funerals. The son in this case lives in Saitama, and his dad lived in Tochigi. Plenty of akiya that could be still unfound with corpses in them throughout Japan. What is another dead person who hasn't been disposed of when the family, or in this case a son, doesn't know what to do or have the time to do anything right away. How long it takes for him to decide has nothing to do with the final outcome. When dad is dead, he is dead. And in the winter he would be well preserved. After all, it is not like many of the cases in Japan where someone else is living in the house and just closes the room to where the deceased is, and goes on with life in the same house without doing anything. Perhaps he was waiting for it to be warmer so that he could get out his spade and bury dad in the back yard in the homestead in Tochigi and save the cost of having a funeral.