Three bodies have been found in a home in Gifu, with the cause of death suspected to be illness or starvation, police said Friday.
Of the three, a man and a woman discovered in the same room appeared to have died more than a month ago, while the time of death of a man in another room was about a week ago, judging from the bodies' degree of decay, police said.
Police officers found the corpses Thursday inside the wooden house where Katsutoshi Takeuchi, 73, his 71-year-old wife and their 43-year-old son lived, after a municipal welfare official reported to the police that he was unable to enter the home.
The police believe the bodies are those of the resident family members.
The three were judged to be thin but there were no outwardly obvious injuries, according to investigative sources.
The police suspect that one or two of the people may have died of illness and the other or others may have starved to death afterward, the sources said.
According to the landlord, Takeuchi's wife told him in July that she would pay their rent in arrears once they receive a pension payment in August, but the rent was never paid.