Man, 60, arrested for hanging 90-year-old mother in Chiba

Monday 01st June, 09:17 AM JST

CHIBA —

A 60-year-old man was arrested on Sunday for murder, accused of using a cord tied to an overhead beam to choke his 90-year-old mother to death in their Yachiyo City apartment.

Police said Akiyoshi Ishiwata, who lived in the apartment with his mother, is accused of wrapping the cord around her neck as she sat in a chair and pulling the chair out from under her, causing her to choke to death at around noon on Saturday.

Police said Ishiwata called his ex-wife on Saturday night and told her he had killed his mother, and she in turn called an ambulance. Ishiwata’s mother was found dead lying in a futon.

Ishiwata said his mother had frequented a hospital for psychiatric care. He was quoted by police as saying: “She said she wanted to die, so I helped her.”

News reports

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Latest 15 of 22 Total Comments Show All

Maria at 01:21 PM JST - 1st June

" I want to die2 doesn't mean "please kill me.", anyway.
realist at 01:35 PM JST - 1st June

Japan - a nation without compassion, and without a soul. It seems like almost every day we read of horrible cases like this, and I think it id disgraceful that there are people who would try to argue that what this man did was not murder. It was. It was the unlawful killing of another human being, in this case, his mother. Sometimes I really despair for this country and its people. They have lost their way, spiritually and morally. It is a spiritually and morally bankrupt country, and is becoming a very sad place to be. Ive lived here for a long time, but what I see these days makes me think that the time is coming to move on to greener pastures... This is just plain sick.
realist at 01:36 PM JST - 1st June

LFRAgain "Assisted suicide" = MURDER.
womanforwomen at 02:11 PM JST - 1st June

realist you've said exactly what I wanted to say. Schools should have Moral Science lessons for kids from the age of 5 years onwards so that when they grow up they can distinguish between right and wrong. Maybe, it is the breakdown in family values and marriages the main reason for situations where 60 year olds end up looking after their old parents all by themselves. It sure is not easy to do, so all these bizarre things happen.
elbudamexicano at 02:33 PM JST - 1st June

Why did he wait until she was already 90 years old?? If she was nuts many years before, he could have done this when she was 60 and he was just 30?? My guess is his wife was probably really sick of the old nutty mother in law who would just go on and on like an Eveready battery. RIP old woman.
TokyoGas at 02:46 PM JST - 1st June

This is getting crazy...
IfeelImust at 02:47 PM JST - 1st June

Lets call a spade a spade here, this is not an assisted suicide this execution! What lead to it is another question. RIP Ma.
IfeelImust at 02:49 PM JST - 1st June

Sorry should have read this is execution.
dennis0bauer at 03:15 PM JST - 1st June

You mother raised you, and now she is old and feeble, taking care of her is to much of a hassle?
Monoflow at 05:10 PM JST - 1st June

Why (almost) every problem in Japan must end in death?... It used to be the land of the rising sun and became now afterglow country...
1keiron at 05:12 PM JST - 1st June

Another day, another murder reported on JT. This story in particular is very sick indeed.
Patrick Smash at 05:54 PM JST - 1st June

I would hazard a guess that this gentleman is bonkers. Or just a bit of an execution freak.
polarmalik at 08:53 PM JST - 1st June

An evil man - he'll never see the gates of heaven even if he's re-born a 100 times over - killing is mother is the greatest sin and like rejecting your ticket to heaven - shame on you Akiyoshi, shame on you, YOU ARE DOOMED
norinrad21 at 05:18 AM JST - 2nd June

Stone cold
elbudamexicano at 05:37 AM JST - 2nd June

In olden times here in Japan, it was not an uncommen practice to send off grampa or granma to some far off mountain, and let them die there in the cold "uba ste" litteraly "dumping the granparents" off to let them die. When Japan was a mostly agricultural nation, and the old folks, were too old to go out and work in the fields, pick the rice etc..just sit around the house and wait to be fed, bathed etc..while the rest of the family had to go on working and making up for granpa or granma lack of work, this was seen as quite normal back in the day. Now, well, it is illegal, but still all Japanese know or have heard of "uba sute" which was also quite popular with the American Indians back in the day. Anyway, RIP obaachan.