NAGOYA -- Police launched a full-scale investigation Aug. 12 after a body of an adult man was found in a plastic container box that drifted into Nagoya port Aug. 11.
Police efforts to identify the body and determine the cause of death are being made more difficult by advanced decomposition.
The local water police station said an autopsy began at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 12. The man was 167 cm tall and believed to be between 20 and 50. Up to four weeks have passed since he died, police said.
The container was found at a Toho Gas Co. pier at 7 a.m. Aug. 11. Inside the box, police found the corpse and two large stones around 40 cm in diameter placed on the body. The rocks, police believe, were used as weights to sink the body and box.
The body was laid flat in the box with the limbs folded. When found, the corpse was clad in a white T-shirt, black foreign-brand underwear and black socks, police said.
The lid was sealed with adhesive tape. Black and yellow ropes, apparently of the type used at construction sites, were wrapped around the box, which was also wrapped in three layers of gray cloth that appears to be curtains, police said.