A former caregiver at a Tokyo nursing home was arrested Tuesday over the murder of an 83-year-old resident at the facility in August, the police said.
Hisashi Minakawa, 25, has admitted to the killing, the police said. The victim, Kan Fujisawa, "repeatedly wet the bed and I couldn't stand it anymore," Minakawa was quoted by the police as saying.
Fujisawa, a former deputy headmaster at a private high school in Tokyo, suffered Parkinson's disease.
The killing took place in the early hours of Aug. 22. According to the police, Minakawa lost his temper after Fujisawa wet the bed multiple times the previous night. He strangled Fujisawa, threw him into a bathtub and drew hot water, according to the police.
Minakawa had been working a night shift with another worker on the night of the homicide but was alone with Fujisawa in the bathing facility.
Prior to his arrest he told the police he found the victim dead after he was away tending to an emergency call within the nursing home. But there was no record of such a call, according to the police.
The police launched the murder investigation after spotting evidence of strangling — a broken bone in Fujisawa's throat. Minakawa quit his job at the facility in late September.
"We will fully cooperate with the police investigation," Yukio Akiyama, head of the nursing home's operator Nichii Carepalace Co., said in a statement. "We will also take measures to prevent such an incident from happening again."