A 58-year-old woman is suspected of keeping her father's decomposed body inside a closet in their house in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, for five years after his death and drawing off his pension, police said Wednesday.
After the body of a man believed to be Asakichi Miyata — who would be 91 if alive — was found in the house, the woman claimed her father was dead when she came home one day five years ago and she put his corpse in the closet afterward, they said.
Miyata, a former banker, is believed to have been receiving a pension, and the daughter may have been living off it, according to municipal and police officials.
The police received a call Wednesday morning from a municipal official who visited the house and alerted them to the corpse.
Municipal officials were visiting the house as part of a nationwide effort to check whether the elderly listed in local family registries actually are alive, following recent revelations that hundreds of unaccounted for seniors remain registered.
The woman had received ¥10,000 in congratulatory money for the aged from the city of Izumi on behalf of her father last September, claiming at the time that her father was doing well, according to city officials.
Four days after the officials started visiting the home on Aug. 19 to check his whereabouts, the woman telephoned the city to say her father was staying with her sister and asked to be left alone.