crime

Tokyo man arrested after living with father's corpse

29 Comments

Police said Saturday they have arrested a man in his 50s after it was discovered that he had been living with his father's corpse in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward for more than a year.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, officers visited the home of the accused, a fourth floor apartment in a condominium, on Friday morning. TBS reported that police discovered the mummified remains of a man hidden in a duvet.

The man was quoted by police as saying that the corpse was that of his father who had passed away in January 2012. He claimed that he did not have the money to arrange a funeral and had left the body in his home. TBS quoted police as saying that the man will be charged with unauthorized disposal of a corpse.

Police say there were no obvious signs of injury on the body of the deceased.

© Japan Today

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29 Comments
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people has no money to pay for the funeral anymore...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I'm sorry, but money or no money, stashing away your Dad's corpse in a duvet is not the answer. Perhaps the man is suffering a mental illness,and if that be the case, it seems barbaric that the cops have charged him. father to the crematorium, son to counselling! job done.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Sad sate of affairs when you can't even get government assistance for a burial. No mention of the pension payments though. The Japanese government really needs to reassess their pension and funeral system. Many seniors can't afford to live nor can they afford to die. Yet, they have been paying 20-25% of their salaries into the fund for 20+ years. It's one of the biggest governmental scams I have ever heard of.

On another note, how can be he be charged with 'unauthorized disposal of a body' when he did not dispose of the body at all? Shouldn't it be, 'unauthorized storage of a body'?

6 ( +9 / -3 )

It must have smelled great in there...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

WTF is with all these people in the last month living with people's remains ?? This is what the third article now in reference to these ?? Having someone's remains in a urn is one thing but stashing someone away is another, didn't have the money ?? Wonder if he is guilty for collecting his fathers benefits as well.

MORBID !!!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Living with a corpse seems to be the new normal in Japan now.

9 ( +8 / -0 )

@akkk1...spot on!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

No money for the funeral? At least he could have asked some crematory support from the city hall and just keep the ash and bones temporarily until there's money for the burial plot. Or he can opt to dispersing the remains in the sea.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

TBS quoted police as saying that the man will be charged with unauthorized disposal of a corpse.

But he didn't dispose of the body......

2 ( +3 / -1 )

how old? there are about 51,000 centenarians in Japan, one of them?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I saw pictures from this home on the news... What a complete dump. No doubt was sonny here a little... Shall we say behind? So much junk on the balcony, junk inside the apartment. This man certainly had some form of mental hindrance. I don't really know how things work when you don't have money for funeral here but I certainly think there is some form of help you can receive, no? You shouldn't be forced to live with a corpse just because lack of money.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

When I go to karaoke next, I'm going to sing 'Living in a box' but change the lyrics to,"I'm living with a corpse, I'm living with a rotten corpse" ♪

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Again! There is a dysfunctional theme running through so many stories.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Normally we think of a person as being insane if they live with a corpse. I have seen so much of this in the Japanese papers. I hear people ask about the pension money which may be a motive for keeping the corpse but then again it only shows desperation. pension money can not be that much money as no government program ever pays out what is paid in. I think it must be a mental problem or a fear problem. He may be afraid because he does not have the money and afraid the government will try to make him pay even if he can not. No one knows what went on in this persons mind so no one can pass any judgement. He can not be charged with disposal of a body, a good lawyer would have that charged laughed out of court. The only thing they can charge him with is failure to dispose of a body but then again that would be laughed out of court as it was not his body to dispose of.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Arrested!? And news for all of us to read? Surely, a kindly official explaining that you shouldn't have done that, but I'm sorry for your loss. What is this bloody world coming to.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japan is like the movie.. night of the living dead

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Funerals and Weddings are 10 times more expensive in Japan as they should be.... what a racket!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

J Gov. should have a state run crematorium for the poor. Human dignity is, in my opinion, an universal right regardless of one's bank account.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I wonder why Japan Today saw fit to post this story.

Is there any point to it?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@oberst

J Gov. should have a state run crematorium for the poor. Human dignity is, in my opinion, an universal right regardless of one's bank account.

Ah, but that would be socialism, you see, and half the posters on this site would be physically sick at the prospect....

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Yes everyone should be able to die with dignity. "Soylent Green" the film takes place in 2022 in a New York City that has ballooned to hold 40 million residents. The world is polluted, the human population too big, and life in the city is hard. Food mostly takes the form of processed rations made from people but even that is in short supply. The streets are full of hungry homeless people. If you want to die you can check yourself in to a death center where you are "processed" and it is famously discovered that Soylent Green is People. In Japan death is big business with vast grave yards and big marble family temples that cost more than a high rise condo ... operators force owners to come each year to pay "maintenance fees" or they "recycle" unattended plots.. what do you think will be the future...

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

A certain nonsensical "religion" here that does most of the funerals charges obscene amounts of money for pointless rituals like silly chants. "So sorry about your loss ー just leave your cash in the envelopes over there." That said, this man could no doubt have got help from local authorities. Not burying his old man is the ultimate insult and disrespect.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

State run crematory? Not so sure if there's such a thing here. What I really know from the mouth of a bereaved mother of a still birth child was, she was asked to pay just 1000 yen for the crematory of the baby after asking the city hall for some help. I just thought there are some cheaper ways to hold funerals or by practicality just asked that the cadaver be blessed and then off it goes to the crematory, keep the ash until there's money for the burial plot or until the rest of the family, if ever there is, decided what should be done with it. Like the rest, I do think too that the man has some mental challenge or covering up something.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I see a zombie sitcom in the works. Dead Daddy Knows Best....

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Maybe i see a market for home crematoriums? next on the Japan shopping chanell!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

" The Japanese government really needs to reassess their pension and funeral system. Many seniors can't afford to live nor can they afford to die."

How about individual responsibility? What's with all the "the government should take care of...." mentality? Nanny-state nonsense.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

sad, i think no relatives, but living with the dead kinda scarry, and the smell ... how come he can go to work, back home, eating, watching tv, sleeping, without anything to worries?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Japanese term is shitai-iki - 死体遺棄 - which is usually translated as 'abandoning a corpse' but should really be translated as 'failing to deal appropriately with a dead body'. There is money to help pay for a funeral for the poor, but people may want to have a 'proper' funeral, with expensive kaimyo, which they can't afford. But that's not the case here I suspect.

Kent mcgraw

pension money can not be that much money Pension may be a nice bit of money.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I watched a documentary that japanese funeral companies rises the price tags of funeral materials (coffins etc) by 10 times the actual price if the things are brought directly by the family without the company. imagine 1000yen becomes 10 000 yen! somebody is taking too much profit from people grievances... (salary men/monks??) the authorities need to look into this matter, regulate these transactions and make them reasonable!

Btw dont the insurance cover the cost of funerals?...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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