Police in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, have arrested a 65-year-old woman on suspicion of strangling to death her 90-year-old mother with whom she lived.
According to police, Michiko Miyagi is accused of strangling her mother Aki sometime on the night of Jan 9 or early on the morning of Jan 10 at their home in Midori Ward, Sankei Shimbun reported. She also tried to kill herself, police said.
Miyagi lived with her husband and her mother. At around 7:45 a.m. on Jan 10, Miyagi’s husband called 110 and said that his wife and mother-in-law were missing. Police found Aki, wrapped in a blanket, on a nearby park bench. She had been strangled with an electric appliance cord which was left at the scene.
About two hours later, police found Miyagi slumped in a parked car. Her left wrist had been slit in what police believe was a suicide attempt. She was taken to hospital to be treated for her wound and released on Tuesday, at which point police arrested her.
Police said Miyagi has admitted to the charge and quoted her as saying she was worn out from looking after her ailing mother.
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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ReynardFox
Japan Today’s “Crime” section can pretty much be summed up with:
“Parent kills child: claims to have been unable to deal with the strain”
or
“Child kills parent: claims to have been unable to deal with the strain”
Aly Rustom
Exactly
kochikame
So, it seems like she carried her dead mother to the car by herself.
Jack Whittiker
One daughter killed one mother over being exhausted for taking care of her. Why does everyone always believe that one tragedy necessitates the destruction of an entire cultural system to fix? As if one daughter killing her mother is a commentary on the entire culture itself. It's not. This is a tragedy, nothing more. Why can't we just pay our respects to the family and move on? Why does an entire culture need to be changed over one tragedy?
Mickelicious
It can be a full-time job just finding care homes because there's so much demand. Also, a patient will be kicked out of one type of facility as their condition either worsens or improves, starting that search all over again.
Seesaw7
Why didn't she send her to the Nursing home?
kaimycahl
People are so consumed with trying to survive day to day stresses, we never tend to think that we come into this world the same way we will leave as we age mindless and needing a helping hand like a newborn. Just as tiring as it is for a mother to bring her child into this world, it is just as tiring for a daughter or son to take care the parents as they age to leave this world. Those on the outside who may have never experience this don't really know, they just read and hear about it, and ask WHY? Then we blame the family member for killing a love one. I say there is not answer to this problem, and it will continue to happen. We can say is mental, but no matter how much support is out there, nothing can stop the real problem, and that is STRESS. It a mental disease and it is a daily way of life in a world in which we live in.
ReynardFox
I was unaware you knew them personally. Please give them my condolences
Maruko desu
As soon I as read the headline, I knew what happened without reading the story. I cared for my mother for two years before transferring her into a nursing home in the U.S. My mother had two strokes and developed dementia as a result of the strokes. She also had an osteoarthritic knee that prevented her from walking so she was confined to a wheelchair. Caring for an elderly parent with dementia is comparable to caring for an adult child whose mental and physical capacities continue to decline. My mother thought she could walk so she would step out of the wheelchair and immediately fall. It was exhausting having to pick her up off the floor and make the many trips to the emergency room. That along with the regularly scheduled doctor's visits (4 doctors each with a different specialty), picking up her medications, feeding her 3x a day, changing and washing wet bed sheets, changing her diaper, etc. I barely slept as I had to sleep on the couch near her bedroom just in case she got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom in her wheelchair where she would fall along the way. It got to a point that I realized I couldn't do this on my own anymore and had to transfer her into a nursing home. She hated going into a nursing home but I had no choice. As much as I loved my mother, caring for her was literally killing me. She lived for 6 years in the nursing home before passing in her sleep at the age of 91 yrs old.
Mickelicious
It's amazing, too (although I'm not suggesting it about these unfortunates) how wives think they can still spend like the Bubble era on hubby's single, shrinking salary.
purple_depressed_bacon
Maybe if Japan took mental health seriously and offered more elderly care facilities and support, we wouldn't be hearing about cases like this every other week. And what about the poor woman's husband? Bet he didn't bother lifting a finger to help his haggard, worn out wife because caregiving is "woman's work".
Hiro
And this is why i am never gonna go past 80. Hell, just living till 70 is enough for me. I don't need someone to take care of me. I won't ever give this burden to my children.
Chico3
As long as the current government style (predominantly male in their 50s+ and their own group) is in peer, never. The younger incoming males will be groomed by the oyaji.
David Brent
Never. They don't care.
snowymountainhell
Another tragic end to another desperate Japanese family. When will the Japanese government wake up and deal with their own ‘epidemic of families in economic crisis’ and ‘mental health issues’ ??