Police in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, have arrested a 38-year-old man after he kept his mother’s body in their apartment for a year.

According to police, Ryotaro Taniguchi, a company employee, lived with his mother – who was bedridden -- until she died at the age of 76 in June last year. He was quoted by police as saying his mother died of an illness and that he didn’t want to spend money on a funeral for her.

On Friday, Taniguchi told a work colleague about his mother and his colleague contacted police who found the woman’s skeletonized remains in a futon.

Police are investigating to see whether Taniguchi continued to receive his mother's pension payments after her death.

© Japan Today </s> OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested a 38-year-old man after he was found to have lived with the corpse of his mother in their residence in Toyonaka City for the past year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 29).

On Friday, police arrested Ryotaro Taniguchi, a company employee, after the discovery of the skeletal remains atop a futon in a room at the residence he shared with his mother in the Kumanocho area.

Officers later accused Taniguchi of abandoning a corpse. “My mother died a natural death,” the suspect told police. “I couldn’t pay for a funeral.”

Taniguchi said that his mother died at the age 76 in June of last year. She was bedridden at the time.

Earlier on the day of the discovery, Taniguchi told a colleague at work, “My mother is dead at home.” The colleague then tipped off police. </s> Police in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, said Friday they have arrested a 53-year-old unemployed man for not reporting the death of his 86-year-old father so that he could keep collecting the dead man’s pension.

According to police, Kiyotaka Koike’s father Sueo died last December, reportedly of natural causes. Koike didn’t notify the authorities and kept the body in the house.

Koike, who was arrested Thursday on a charge of abandoning a body, was quoted by police as saying he had no money to pay for a funeral and that he needed his father’s pension for living expenses.

The body was found on June 4 when a city welfare official visited the house after not having heard from Sueo for a long time. The body was wrapped in a blanket lying on a futon in a bedroom.

© Japan Today </s> OSAKA (THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A man was arrested on Monday (June 17) morning on suspicion of attempted murder over the stabbing of a police officer in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, the previous day.

Following the attack on the officer, whose handgun was also stolen, police found a man suspected of fleeing the scene in a nearby city in Osaka Prefecture. The suspect was identified as part-time worker Yujiro Iimori, 33, of Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo. Iimori had the handgun with him when Osaka prefectural police arrested him.

According to police, Iimori denied the allegation of attempted murder. They will further investigate his possible motives and other elements of the case.

Iimori is suspected of attempting to murder on-duty policeman Suzunosuke Kose, 26, by stabbing him in the chest in a parking space of the Senriyama police box in Suita at about 5.38am on Sunday, police said. Iimori is also suspected of stealing officer Kose's handgun, loaded with five bullets.

Officer Kose is unconscious and in critical condition.

In response to questioning, Iimori reportedly said: "That's not something I did. I think it happened because my illness got worse and the people around me got worse."

Iimori has remained silent on the subject of his identity and refuses to sign a written record of the questioning.

According to the prefectural police, Iimori has received psychosomatic treatment and was issued a mental disorder certificate. The police will examine whether Iimori can be held criminally responsible.

Iimori lives with his parents in a condominium in Shinagawa Ward, and once lived in Suita. Some information suggests that he served in the Maritime Self-Defence Force from April to September 2009.

Investigators found Iimori lying on a bench in a forest in Minoo, Osaka Prefecture, and arrested him at 6.34am on Monday. The bench is about 8km north of the police box. When arrested, Iimori had approximately ¥100,000 (S$1,266) in cash and his driver's licence. There was a plastic bag underneath the bench containing the police handgun.

There were signs that one bullet out of five had been fired. At about 6am on Sunday, immediately after the attack, an explosive sound was heard in a residential area near the police box. Police are investigating the possibility that Iimori fired the gun while fleeing from the scene.

A suspicious man was recorded wandering around by a security camera at the Senriyama police box before the attack, and the prefectural police released a screen grab from the footage.

Iimori's father, an executive at Kansai Television, contacted the police, saying, "(The man in the screen grab) looks like my son."

A hotel in Suita also reported to police that a guest who stayed there last Friday night appeared to be the man in the image.

Based on such tips, the prefectural police concluded Iimori was involved in the attack and obtained an arrest warrant early Monday. The police also put Iimori on a nationwide wanted list.

The police collected security video footage from a wide range of areas in a bid to track Iimori's movements, and determined that a man who appeared to be Iimori was heading toward the forest in Minoo at about 8pm on Sunday. The police combed the forest after daybreak on Monday.

Osaka prefectural police chief Takahisa Ishida issued a statement saying: "I am sorry we caused fear among the people in the prefecture. We will try to ascertain the whole picture of the case and proceed with police activities for the peace and safety (of the public)."
In the second similar case within a week, police in Toyonaka, Japan, arrest Ryotaro Taniguchi for keeping the body of his deceased mother a year after her death. He is quoted as saying he didn't want to pay for the funeral. Police are investigating whether or not Taniguchi continued to receive his mother's pension.