Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
Police in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward have arrested an unemployed 59-year-old woman on suspicion of abandoning a body and fraud after she did not notify authorities of her father’s death at their home and continued to receive his pension.
Police said that at first, Naoe told them her father, who was in his 90s, died at the end of March but an autopsy revealed that he had been dead for nearly two months, Fuji TV reported. After being questioned further, Naoe admitted that her father died in early February and that she had left him in bed, wrapped in a blanket.
Police said there were no external signs of injury on the body and believed he died of natural causes.
Naoe was quoted by police as saying she needed her father’s pension money to live on and that she had no money to pay for a funeral.
Naoe went to a friend on April 6 and said her father was dead and that she didn’t know how long she could get away with hiding the fact of his death. She also asked her friend to feed her cat. The friend called 110 and police went to Naoe’s house where they discovered her father’s body.
© Japan Today
13 Comments
Login to comment
Michael Jackson
Only 2 months worth not a big deal
commanteer
Well, fraud is fraud, so it is a big deal. I do have some sympathy for these people. The loss of her father's pension puts her in a financial crisis. On top of that, she has to pay for an overpriced funeral. Maybe she thought she would just get away with it for a few months, but hard to imagine how she thought she could explain not reporting his death.
With so many people just getting by, something should be changed so that death (which is guaranteed to happen eventually) doesn't cause financial havoc to those in already dire straits.
papigiulio
In Holland they have funeral insurance. This means that when those persons die the relatives get financial compensation for the funeral. Not sure if they have it in Japan but would be good.
BTW im sure many many many other people are hiding their relatives deaths to keep collecting money, not sure why the government doesn't check in on people to stop payments or let them sign a bill by the receiver each month to see if he/she is still alive, shouldnt be that difficult to think of a way.
Goodlucktoyou
If she can’t afford to feed her cat, then how can she afford ¥1200000 for a funeral? Unemployed at 59 years old doesn’t give you lots of employment opurtunities in japan.
Jalapeno
So the friend ratted her out.
Disillusioned
This is quite a common crime in Japan. There have been quite a few cases where they have collected the pension for three or four years after the death of their parent or partner. If I recall correctly, there was one case that went on for nearly a decade. It makes one wonder how long this one could have gotten away with it if she had not sent her friend over to feed her cat. I used to surf with a guy in Ibaraki whose job it was to drive around and check to see if the old people were still alive. Apparently, most municipalities have people doing this job. It's a seriously flawed system if they have to employ people to drive around, knock on doors and ask, "Are you still alive?"
Disillusioned
Oh, by the way, the local city halls arrange funerals for ¥30-40,000, so that excuse doesn't float, especially because guests give money at funerals in Japan..
Haruka
The guy was in his 90's. He has been collecting since age 60, so we got thirty plus years of pension. How much a month could it actually have been? ¥50,000 perhaps?
Nessie
Japan needs to crack down on this kind of parasitism.
since1981
Wonder how many more are out there illegally collecting pensions.
sir_bentley28
That level of snitching though! She trusted her friend enough to share her secret. I'm not saying her crime is ok, but......