The chairman of the company running a chicken farm in Tanba, Kyoto Prefecture, that did not alert authorities of an outbreak of bird flu, and his wife were found hanged Monday morning in an apparent suicide.

A 53-year-old female employee of Asada Nosan Co. found the bodies of the chairman, Hajimu Asada, 67, and his wife, Chisako, 64, near the company's head office in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, at around 7:40 a.m., police said.

They said Asada and his wife hanged themselves back to back from a tree outside a poultry house. They said they found an apparent suicide note on the dining table in the couple's home.