Police in Osaka have arrested a 71-year-old woman on suspicion of corpse abandonment after the decaying body of her 94-year-old mother was found at their home on Friday.
According to police, the manager of the municipal housing building in Nishiyodogawa Ward went to the apartment of Mayumi Ishida at around 3 p.m. Friday after being told that a foul odor was coming from the apartment, Kyodo News reported. When Ishida let him in, he found her mother’s body and called police.
Police said the body of Ishida’s mother was covered by a towel, lying on a carpet in a tatami mat room, and that it had begun to decay.
Police said Ishida told them her mother died in mid-July but she did not have enough money to pay for a funeral.
There were no external signs of injury on the body and police said an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Ishida moved into the apartment with her mother and father, who suffers from dementia, about three months ago. Her father was in his room when police arrived.
© Japan Today
26 Comments
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sakurasuki
Can't imagine the smell
Funeral in Japan can be costly, government just quiet about this.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/09/26/national/social-issues/funeral-costs/
602miko
Penshionatic I'm sure if she went to the city hall to report her mum's death a little help they will provide for her
wallace
Local authorities provide cremations for about ¥20,000.
gogogo
The state needs to offer low cost or free funerals for people without money. The cost of funerals in Japan gets up there the same as weddings.
wallace
gogogo
You can organise your own funeral. In some cities like Osaka, there are funeral hotels where you can stay for a night or two and have a funeral for ¥180,000.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/the-crematory-is-booked-japan-offers-corpse-hotels/
gogogo
Wallace, 180,000 is 2-3 months salary for most part time workers. There is no chance people are going to afford that. The state should offer a free cremation only for 10,000yen.
Larr Flint
At least she was honest and said she didn't have money to cover for funeral.
However I would check if she was using her pension after her mom passed away.
I also think funeral is one thing but maybe she didn't have cash to cover for inheritance tax if the apartment was her mom.
wallace
gogogo
If people are on low incomes they can ask the local authority.
Funerals are usually paid for by the whole family not just one part of it. We recently had funerals for my BIL and SIL which cost less than ¥100,000 each. We split the costs with other family members. People also donate money to the deceased. (Okoden).
wallace
These days many families refuse to accept a deceased person back from the police or hospital so they avoid the cost of a funeral.
Rodney
Monk will come to my house today. 100 days thingy. Very expensive.
Rodney
@walace. Try ¥3000000. From our experience.
Lindsay
It’s sad that in a country that boasts about being rich and caring for the elderly that this can happen. A woman in her seventies was full time carer for her ailing parents. One parent died and she had no funds for a funeral and left her to rot for a month.
wallace
Rodney
Then you overpaid and could have done it for less than ¥200,000.
opheliajadefeldt
A 71 yr old poor woman caring for her 94yr old mother. Some thing is very wrong here.
Chabbawanga
This is very common. I know plenty of elderly students who live with their even older parents. Our neighbors are the same too. Whats the alternative, spend their miniscule pension on putting their parents in a home?
Brian Wheway
It's a sad state of affairs when you leave a parent on the floor decomposing, some one who brought you into the world and brought you up, only to end your life like this, this is inhumane and undignified, the state should offer a basic funeral or cremation service so long as it's means tested, if the relations can simply not pay, not just a cheap way out.
Chico3
@gogogo - You’re right despite what the media sometimes writes about high salaries, mostly from employees of Japan Inc. It should be known to people that there are alternatives with funeral arrangements. My thoughts are that this person who kept the body wanted the government payments or was ashamed that she couldn’t provide a respectful funeral for the deceased. Yes, funerals in Japan are usually expensive.
purple_depressed_bacon
Considering Japan's rapidly aging population, the Japanese government had better start coming up with some kind of scheme or support service to help those who are unable to arrange and pay for the funeral for their deceased loved ones. This isn't the first time hearing about cases like this and it makes me shudder every time. I mean, can you imagine the stench of that decaying body? And in Japan's disgustingly humid and hot summer? Yikes.
Japan is a paradox
And this phenomenon is partly how you get the disparity of life expectancy in Japan.
Strangerland
Is it of a statistically significant amount? How much of a 'part'?
garypen
For a PT worker here, that might as well be ¥180,000,000. They're both equally unaffordable. Even the ¥20,000 you mentioned earlier would be out of reach for many.
Municipal governments need to offer free cremations for those who meet the financial requirements. No ceremony. Nothing fancy. Just bones in a box. But, it would prevent these things from happening.
Of course, if the reason the body kept is to keep the pension money coming, it won't prevent that. But, if pensions, and wages for that matter, weren't so low, that sort of subterfuge would not have been necessary for many who have resorted to it.
gogogo
@wallace : I'm glad you have many people to put money in for your funeral, truely thats great, but many familes don't have 100,000 yen sitting around in savings. There are many familes with no extended families able to help. Japan has a massive working poor problem and there are no means to get out of it.
wallace
gogogo
Most families share the cost of their funerals amongst their various branches. You can also have funeral insurance and it sounds like you should have it. Then there are the donations. The average family savings is more than ¥10 million.
In the end, if a family cannot afford a funeral they can ask their local authority.
There is no need to keep deceased members at home.
wallace
garypen
wallace
They can make arrangements with their local authorities for payments as well. They could refuse to accept their deceased relative.
wallace
garypen/gogogo
"For example, the casket and the funerary urn for holding the deceased’s ashes can be bought separately for 30,000 yen and 3,000 yen respectively. The price of cremation depends on the municipality — some local governments offer the service for free, while others may have a small charge of 10,000 yen, which is way cheaper than the 60,000 yen charged by third-party businesses in metropolitan areas like Tokyo. So technically, you could have a funeral for less than 50,000 yen, provided you make the proper arrangements ahead of time."
https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/three-main-reasons-why-fewer-japanese-people-are-having-funerals
DIY funerals
https://soranews24.com/2019/12/15/do-it-yourself-funeral-kits-go-on-sale-in-japan/
Japan is a paradox
Google is your friend.
I linked a research paper on the topic. Some say it's significant, some say not. I think it is because, come on, there's no reason why Japan would have a higher life expectancy than anywhere else.