Police in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Saturday arrested a 61-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of keeping the body of his 86-year-old father at the house where they both lived.
According to police, Masahiko Kawashima said his father died in mid-March and that he didn’t know what to do, Sankei Shimbun reported. Kawashima lived alone with his father.
On Friday night, a relative visited the house and discovered the father’s remains and called 110.
Police said an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
Login to comment
Ricky Sanchez
"Didn't know what to do". The only thing he didn't know what to do is not knowing what to do without his fathers pension payments. Are these kids (yes, he is a kid as he still lives at home) really such a degenerate they truely don't know what to do when someone dies?
Tamil
Tom Doley
Keeping dead family members in the house seems all too common in Japan. And they all give the same old excuse when caught. When will the j-gov acknowledge this as a social issue?
DOEL HARRY
At the age of 61 and he did not know what to do .... How about if you call the police and ask them what you should do .... Keeping a dead body in the house - Makes no sense to me ....
Goodlucktoyou
Don’t know all the parameters. Son had dementia, alcoholism, pension fraud?
but 86 is a good innings.
Btang
Mark
How Sad, I must admit I only hear about this syndrome in Japan and I just don't know the answer!???
Charlie Sommers
If the aim is fraud and a continuation of the fathers pension check couldn't that end be met even if the body was buried somewhere? That would seem more respectful to the deceased in my opinion plus I would imagine that a decomposing corpse would add a rather unpleasant aura to a home.
kaimycahl
**Unemployed man on suspicion of keeping the body of his 86-year-old father at the house where they both lived. **Perhaps this guy honestly didn't know what to do. The right thing would have been to call the police to get something done. He may have lost a mom and perhaps to be alone in a world with no other income he just decided to do the unjust thing and continue living with his father to keep the pension money coming in because he knew he could not go find a job at 61.