An 81-year-old man pushed his disabled wife into the sea, claiming that he was “tired of taking care of her” for the last 40 years.
Japanese authorities apprehended Hiroshi Fujiwara in his home in the town of Oiso on Thursday, after the couple’s eldest son called the police and told them: “My father said he pushed my mother [into the sea].”
Mr Fujiwara pled guilty and admitted to the charges after telling police that on November 3, at about 5.30pm local time, he drove his 79-year-old wheelchair-bound wife, Teruko, to a pier in Oiso and pushed her into the water.
On November 3 a fisherman called the police at roughly 7pm, after he saw a body floating in the waters, the Mainichi reported.
The wheelchair-bound woman was taken to hospital after she was rescued from the sea, but was declared dead.
One of the couple’s neighbours was very shocked to learn the news.
She said: “He is friendly and often gave a ride to his wife, who I understand was bed-ridden. He was devoted to his wife, and there was nothing to suggest [he could kill her], but I guess he was struggling inside.”
South China Morning Post reported that a survey by the health and welfare ministry in Japan found there were 17,281 incidents of elderly people being physically assaulted by family members in 2020, with 25 deaths as a result.
Further data gathered by the Japanese welfare ministry revealed almost 70 per cent of elder abuse victims suffered physical abuse during their ordeals.
In another sad case in Japan, a 57-year-old confessed to repeatedly punching her 82-year-old mother in the face, then stomping on the older woman's body after the two got into an argument about the family dog.
“I thought about killing my mother, who has dementia, and then myself,” a man in his 50s told a telephone hotline of the Japanese Association of Mental Health Services in Tokyo.
