Photo/Illutration The headquarters of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department in Chiyoda Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A 70-year-old Tokyo woman was arrested after calling police to say she had killed her 102-year-old mother because the stress of providing home care had become too much.

Yoko Komine called police at 6:45 a.m. on July 22 to say she had strangled her mother, Fuku, at their home in the western suburb of Kunitachi, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Officers arrived at the scene and found Fuku lying motionless on her bed with rope bruises on the neck. The infirm woman had also been stabbed.

Komine told investigators she had been struggling to care for her mother, who had grown increasingly frail and was no longer able to use the bedside commode on her own.

The incident took place in a residential area about 1.5 kilometers east of JR Tachikawa Station.

Komine moved back into the house about 10 years ago to live with her parents, according to a neighbor in his 70s. The father died a few years ago, leaving the mother and daughter in the house.

Prior to Fuku’s death, paid caretakers visited the home once a week to assist with bathing chores.

The neighbor last saw Komine on July 19, when they chatted about repairs being done to the roof.

“She seemed tired, but I assumed she was alright because care workers visited regularly,” he said. “I never imagined she was this stressed out.”

(This article was written by Hiromichi Fujita and Minami Endo.)

Related News