Daughter left mother's body in freezer for 10 years

Those whose circumstances have changed, such that they no longer qualify for state largesse in the form of subsidized housing, pension or other welfare payments etc are loathe to report the fact. And those whose job it is to ensure that entitlement conditions continue to be met are once again shown to be asleep on the job. Japan is full of such endearing/infuriating (take your pick) 事なかれ主義 scamming and the institutional systemic laziness that aids and abets it. Elsewhere, people who defraud the taxpayer go to prison; here they’re effectively incentivized to continue cheating as the risks of getting caught are so low.

besides she could continue to receive her mother pension cheques and lived in the municipal subsidized flat, this is clearly not the first case in Japan. It's also the failure of the Social Welfare Dept and its workers for their lax rules/checks.

Not the first time I hear about people NOT reporting the death of their family for fear of loosing the pension funds or housing, sad but sickening and very common in Japan.

I blame the system for allowing this syndrome.

So, she hadn't been paying for quite some time.

She could get that late in less than 2 years, maybe only one year if there are big late payment penalties. Covid job loss ?

She is still a weirdo. She could have probably talked to the ward about her financial circumstances, 10yr ago and even 1 yr ago and they'd have helped her, either to keep living there or move to something affordable.

So she did pay the rent for almost 10 years. I wonder what happened recently to change things?

Well, she owed over a million yen. And, since it was municipal housing, the rent was probably only a few man per month. So, she hadn't been paying for quite some time.

So crucial

10 years in a freezer, it sounds like her mum went past her best before date.

Man, there are some seriously sick people living among us!

The saddest part of this story is her mother has disappeared for 10 years and yet no one has raised the alarm about her missing for such long period of time. Has the mother got no relatives or friends that cared about her?

I feel really sorry for the cleaner whose job was just to clean the apartment. Finding a dead woman inside a freezer may seriously traumatise him or her.

Creepy. Japan still doesn’t stress the problems inherent in its own culture

It seems every few weeks there's a story about someone hiding the body of their mom or dad and not reporting it. This is a big problem, but I think its an indication of a much bigger problem.

@ Lamilly you said if she was keeping the pension she would have kept up with the rent. That is 100% your own assumption and is not based in any evidence or fact. She could keep the pension and spend it on alcohol or Pachinko or host clubs. Or maybe she took it out the money and threw it in the street.

Actually that she was getting a pension is also an assumption because it doesn’t say that in the article. The article does say the mother was “thought to be” around 60 at the time of death. From that one could also assume that she was too young and not yet receiving a pension. A lot of missing fact here...

@ Lamilly you said if she was keeping the pension she would have kept up with the rent. That is 100% your own assumption and is not based in any evidence or fact. She could keep the pension and spend it on alcohol or Pachinko or host clubs. Or maybe she took it out the money and threw it in the street.

Why is it in these cases the people have no end game in mind? This woman had ten years time to, I dunno, dispose of the body slowly or bury it in the woods somewhere. Instead it was left for someone to find in a closet.

I guess true crime shows aren't as popular over here. They have nothing to guide them.

File away in the overflowing compendium of ‘as mad as hell, and I’m going have to take even more’ stories that modern Japan is fast developing a reputation for.

Lived there for 10 years with her mother’s body in a freezer. Behind in rent ¥1.1 million yen. Kicked out of the place and left her mother’s body there. Another ‘stranger than fiction’ story from Japan.

What is wrong with people?

10 years of living with your mothers body in the closet, and her pension in your wallet. We know that's what was going on because the article stated she was afraid she would have to move out