crime

Man keeps father's dead body at home for 3 years to keep collecting pension

32 Comments

Police in Handa, Aichi Prefecture, have arrested a 51-year-old man after the skeletonized body of his father was found in his apartment on Tuesday.

According to police, the suspect, Tokumasa Niimi, failed to report the death of his father Susumu, 82, at their home in May 2012, Sankei reported. Police said Niimi continued to collect his late father's pension for the past three years.

Niimi, who works part-time, was quoted by police as saying his income had decreased in recent years and that he needed the money from his father's pension.

The body was found after the landlord contacted the city welfare office to say he hadn't seen Niimi's father for a long time. A welfare officer visited the apartment but when Niimi refused to let him in, he called the police.

Police said Niimi will be charged with fraud and abandonment of a body.

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32 Comments
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I wonder how he can be charged for "abandoning a body" when he actually didn't abandon it, but just kept it at home.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This happens so often it's not even news anymore.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Not the first nor the last case. It's really sad that people are so poor and so desperate to find a job that actually feeds them. So sad anyone feels the need to do that. Note that's not only in Japan, even if in other countries, they don't go as far as keeping the body and just send false documents to welfare office to keep getting the benefits of the deceased.

Why do people assume that this guy was "living at home" with his father? Could be the other way around.

What difference ? They were living together, which is reciprocal. It's the obsession of certain of this board's regulars that whenever 2 or more adults live under a same roof, there is one that is been exploited by the others.

For every one fraud found, you'll be paying this person's salary and travel expenses for thousands of pensioners still alive and kicking. The net result will be a bigger loss for the government.

Not only that. Most of these 'frauds' are not really frauds. Nearly all the cases I've known in my neighbourhoods in Japan and in France were dirt poor families, and usually uneducated, some of them not totally fit mentally. I mean they were claiming the minimum rate elderly pension... while they'd have been eligible for poverty welfare or disability benefits in their own name, roughly at the same amount.

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I was wondering 3 years was long enough to keep the body he kept on the freezer?

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This is not even news in Japan.

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He didn't abandon the body, just commited fraud. Creepy? Yes, but he probably treated his father's body with respect.

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Why isnt the goverment making some mandatory check up to see if people are still alive or not. You'd think the government want to save money.

Hiring people to visit every pensioner in the country on a regular basis to determine if they're still alive saves the government money? How? For every one fraud found, you'll be paying this person's salary and travel expenses for thousands of pensioners still alive and kicking. The net result will be a bigger loss for the government.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Why do people assume that this guy was "living at home" with his father? Could be the other way around. Maybe this guy was taking care of his father. I don't feel this problem is the government's fault. Japan has one the largest (if not the largest) percentages of pensioners to general population. It would honestly be a logistical nightmare to have all pensioner come in once a year, or to send out employees to check. The costs would be more than the fraudulent collections currently happening. This is purely greed. People see any easy way to free cash and take it. Don't put the onus on the government for trying to help people.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I don't think that I would like to have lived next door to this poor guy, lets face it the smell from the decomposing body must have been over powering, especially if the old guy had died in the summer! I hope now that his farther will get a decent burial.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Given that some people have money to burn, I'd feel some pity for this poor suspect having to depend on his father's pension even after he died. However, it was no doubt that he'd broken the law.

Hopefully, he would make enough money to survive. Hang in there!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Refuses to abandon the body. Gets charged with abandonment of a body. How ironic.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Norman Bates

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I don't know what the punishment for this kind of thing is at present, but it's not tough enough since we constantly read about cases of people being caught -- and if there are that many we know about, I bet there are far more we do not. Never mind that they are cheating the system out of money (from the government's point of view, where the real charges would stem from), but the fact that they keep the body of a loved one at home after they have died is sick, and morally disgusting. Obviously fraud charges and improper disposal of body charges will likely be applied, but there needs to be FAR more.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Will he pay back what he collected ...??

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Mathis to James Bond in Casino Royale...

... Being dead does not mean that one cannot still be useful.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I take it from this story that this guy was an only child. I say that because if he had siblings or other close family, wouldn't they have known that his father had not been seen for 3 years? I know that in some cases Japanese families are estranged from each other, but this is a bit extreme.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Based on this story, he could have actually murdered his own father and nobody would know since its three years on and just the skeleton remains. What a great way to not get a murder charge.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I wonder whether the landlord was good buds with Tokumasa Susumu. Why was he concerned enough to contact the city welfare office? Perhaps Tokumasa Niimi was evasive whenever he was questioned about his father... If Niimi told the landlord, Susumu had died and there was no funeral, maybe Niimi could have kept collecting his father's pension. Unless the landlord checked the mailbox and saw the pension check or something indicating Susumu's pension was still active, Niimi could have gotten away with it.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Is it worth the money? With disrespect to the deceast family member and the risk of being caught. And, is it fair to the society?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Isn't there such a thing as insurance in Japan so when a person dies the family gets something? Also, how much would a person make in pension? Would it really be worth it to keep a dead body hidden for so long to get what amount?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This would not happen if the Soc Security System apply the same rule to those Jpensioners living abroad. Those Jpensioners living abroad are required to submit personally some documents to the Japanese embassy. Something like attesting their presence. Non submission would halt the pension.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Another copy/paste story about the working poor.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Must have had a mighty giant freezer.

Still, if the son spent a good part of his life taking care of the old man, then maybe he does deserve some "reward," as long he didn't use it to buy a Ferrari or something.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Wc626: Wonder if the body decomposed in that same apartment. If so, why didn't landlord or neighbors report it soon? Wouldn't the smell be too overwhelming?

Maybe he applied lots of salt...?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Wonder if the body decomposed in that same apartment. If so, why didn't landlord or neighbors report it soon? Wouldn't the smell be too overwhelming?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Even if the government required pensioners to come in to their local government office once a year this would have been stopped earlier. Is an hour or so once a year really that much of an inconvenience? For those who wouldn't be able to make it do to health issues they could still easily have a government employee visit them at their home.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The man lived off his father when he was alive and lives off his father after he dies.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I am something of a macabre person, and I admit to having a particular fondness for stories of people keeping dead loved ones in their homes. Particularly when they become mummified. But I have to say, after many years of searching out and collecting stories like this, an inordinate number of these stories seem to happen in Japan. Why is this? And it's not just some poor guy who kept his dad so he could make ends meet. The stories have many reasons, including love and the inability to let go of the loved one. But why so often in Japan? That i don't know. I've lived there. I try to keep up. But this is a phenomena I have not understood yet.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I feel bad for the guy, that money was so tight he needed to live with his father's dead body for three years just to make ends meet.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

This happened a couple of times before. Why isnt the goverment making some mandatory check up to see if people are still alive or not. You'd think the government want to save money.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Creepy story, but sadly, for many of these middle-aged people living at home, they have no choice than to live with their ailing parents because there are very few other options. The government sponsored elderly care facilities are few and far between and they are overrun with elderly and understaffed. Their are quite a few private organisations, but they are extremely expensive. The real irony is, those who have to stay home and take care of the elderly parents are considered unemployed and get very little support. I'm not surprised so many people hide the deaths of their parents in order to receive their pension although, keeping a corpse in your house for three years is very creepy!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Tip if the iceberg I would say. So many elderly in Japan and as you can read, their middle aged kids are still living at home.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

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