In a bizarre case, a former woman who was in a relationship with his adopted hormone-injecting son was found dead in the western Tokyo suburb of Fussa on Thursday with his face skinned off by a knife, the police said.
Media reports said the victim was Yoshi Tsuchida, 38, a former woman who had undergone a sex change. The rest of his body bore no injuries and lay wrapped in a blanket, with a plastic bag over the face.
The body was discovered by a man in his 20s who shares an apartment with Tsuchida and identified himself as his adopted son, the police said. The man called an ambulance.
The Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported Tsuchida had undergone a sex change operation and had been in a relationship with the "son," who was injecting himself with female hormones, the newspaper said.
Police had received several calls earlier this year from neighbors who reported hearing shouting from inside the apartment, the report said.
The man reportedly told police the two had returned home separately at around 5:30 a.m. and went to sleep in separate rooms. He said he found Tsuchida's body when he woke up later.
The apartment is in a residential area about 500 meters northeast of JR Fussa Station.