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A 77-year-old man was found dead on a road in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, police said Sunday. Police said he apparently leapt to his death from the roof of a shopping center after killing his 79-year-old bed-ridden wife at their home on Saturday, TBS reported.
According to police, the man jumped off the shopping center roof in Hotaruno at about 1:30 p.m. Police identified the man as Yasuhiro Nakajima.
After finding his body, police went to his nearby apartment where they found his wife dead after having been strangled. TBS quoted police as saying that Nakajima left a note saying he was exhausted from caring for his wife who suffered from dementia.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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mikihouse
and the trend will continue to increase as Japanese age
Mirai Hayashi
Totally true. Japan is aging and yet there are no programs to help our senior citizens through situations like these and hence, they become a liability.
Atari
Caring for someone with dementia can be physically and emtionally exhausting. Poor couple, I wish there was more support for the both of them so this didn't end up happening.
FightingViking
@Atari
I totally agree. I wonder if Mr. Abe will try to do something about it (instead of planning to "change history"...)
eimii_watanabe
He could've thought of something else than killing himself and his wife -_-
GW
As I have been saying here for a while, DO YOU want to get old & die in Japan??
Serious question because its obvious the govt etc is simply leaving to pretty much to those affected to deal with it what ever way they wish, we have seen & will continue to see LOTS of dead bodies found in buildings, lots of shoptlifting to gain housing in jails, lots of jumpers, lots of spouses killing spouses, & society just sits there & waits, shoganai I suppose
philly1
Yes. If only he'd had options such as we give to people who wish to end the suffering of their pets. He could have helped his wife and himself to end their lives with greater dignity.
mlg4035
Oh man...I can only imagine the grief and anguish that man must have suffered! My girlfriend's mother passed away three weeks ago after a long battle with liver cancer...She was bed-ridden the last month of her life...and that was tough enough on her...I bet this guy was dealing with this for a long time...RIP obasama, ojisama...
Yardley
Very sad news. To care for someone you love with no help, no respite is difficult enough, but he may have had health issues of his own. He must have felt so hopeless and desperate. Poor couple.
TokyoTanuki
Yeah, I'm sure he came to the decision lightly... (being sarcastic)
scoobydoo
If he could, he probably would have tried it but maybe he was isolated from society and thus had no help or advice from others. Its very hard to think straight when you are in such a low in your life. I have looked back at some decisions I have made when under stress and wondered why I did some of the things I did. Nothing this serious but none the less poor decisions.
almxxx
If only he could have thought his wife and himself into being young, hopeful and healthy again.
nath
Sad story.
Patrick Hagger
Strange thing that stranglation is the choice of murder suicide in Japan.
FPSRussia
Suicide always leads to speculation......why? Why kill your wife?
I love the optimism here and the readiness to put the blame on society.
Your assumptions allow plenty of room for a sweet old lady by his side. She's a woman so she must have been an angel suffering.
I'd rather consider the more likely scenario. He was fed up with her. The only reason he stayed in the marriage is because of Japan's age old marriage laws that would have crushed him.
I say when he got the chance he strangled the old hag without mercy. Maybe something he had been wanting to do for a long time.
But we'll never know will we? All we can do is speculate or accept what the media wants us to believe.