crime

Man arrested over fire that killed mother, uncle

6 Comments

Police in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, on Tuesday arrested a 32-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of arson and murder after a fire destroyed his house, killing his mother and her older brother.

According to police, a passerby called 119 at around 9:50 p.m. Monday to report that the two-story wooden house was on fire. Ten fire trucks were mobilized and the fire was extinguished after about two hours. Police said the house was completely destroyed. Among the ruins were the remains of a man and a woman, later identified as the house owner, Sadao Sakurai, 71, and his sister Matsuyo Hagiwara, 68.

Police said Hagiwara’s son, Yukihiro, who also lived in the house, was found in the garden. Police said he has admitted to starting the fire, but has so far given no motive.

A neighbor told local media that the son used to quarrel a lot with his mother.

© Japan Today

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6 Comments
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True it is very very astonishing to me to read that son killed his mother. How utterly disgusting. Worse type of crime.

I don't see how it's worse. Now the other way around, a parent killing a child, THAT'S bad!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

True it is very very astonishing to me to read that son killed his mother. How utterly disgusting. Worse type of crime.

Killing your father in a fight for instance is understandable is one thing but killing your mother...

So sad.

RIP to the deceased

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Never understood the fascination with listing people's occupation in crime stories.

It's a Japanese thing. They report the news in the same sort of way they study history. They like an overview of the circumstances of the situation, and in this country, a person's occupation adds perspective to their situation, which the Japanese feel adds insight into why the person may have done the crime.

It comes across as strange to westerners, because that's not how we report news. Totally normal here, but since the news is translated into English, it can sometimes seem strange.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Never understood the fascination with listing people's occupation in crime stories. Assuming he's not famous, does it add anything to the story if this arsonist is unemployed vs. fish monger/roadie/cashier/etc?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Another family mass-murder in ‘safety’ Japan. Perhaps the over all murder count is lower than other countries, but the number of family murders is not. Personally, I fail to see how Japan’s murder rate could be so low with amount of family murders every day. My guess is, the statistics are fudged using the ‘abandoning a body’ thing. The other day a woman jumped off a building with her one year old daughter. Will that be counted as a murder or a double suicide?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

... given no motive? Here's your motive. "Put down the game controller and get a job you lazy slug."...

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

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