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Body found in apartment - 20 years after death Skeleton of man found in derelict Tokyo building Updated: 3:17 a.m. ET June 10, 2004TOKYO - The pyjama-clad skeleton of a Japanese man has been found in a vacant apartment building -- 20 years after his lonely death. The skeleton was discovered lying atop a musty "futon" bedding earlier this month when workers getting ready to raze the derelict building entered the second floor unit where the man had lived, domestic media reports said on Thursday. A newspaper dated February 20, 1984, was on the kitchen table. Police believe the man, an employee of the construction firm that built the apartments in 1973, moved in after the building was vacated when the firm managing it went bankrupt, the reports said. Â The man, then 57 and divorced with children, suddenly stopped coming in to work two decades ago but none of his relatives ever asked police to search for him. "I had no idea that the apartment even existed," the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper quoted a 65-year-old neighbor as saying. "After I heard the news, I thought 'Oh, it's here.' It's as if time had stopped in this one place." " https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5177720/ |
International Level: Diplomat / Political Participation: 320 32%
This is a sad story especially since the relatives knew he was not going to work and did not attempt to find out why. I dont know much about the Japanese culture, but it would almost seem like he was shunned or outcast by his family. Has this sort of occurrence happened before in Japan to lead us to believe it is culture related?
International Level: Envoy / Political Participation: 241 24.1%
What makes me think it might have something to do with culture is how they view certain things like business responsibility and shame. For example, there was a JAL plane crash a while back. It had something to do with mechanical failure, I believe. The president of JAL felt he needed to resign because in their culture he was expected to take responsibility for the accident even though the plane had a manufacturing defect.
Since the apartment complex being built by his company failed, and since he moved into this complex after the failure makes me wonder if there might not have been some "shame" thing involved and perhaps his family wanted to respect his rights to privacy. Or, just that the culture doesn't seem to believe in digging into others personal affairs so maybe they figured it was his business why he wasn't contacting any of them. It is nothing more than wonder on my part, though.
International Level: Diplomat / Political Participation: 320 32%
A few things I don't understand---- Didn't anyone get suspicious when he stopped paying his rent or mortgage? Wouldn't he have been evicted for non paymet after a while? Even if he owned the place with no mortgae, taxes would have been due. What about the Japenese IRS? If he all of a sudden stopped filing income tax, wouldn't they hunt him down? Was his mail piling up for 20 years? Even if he had no personal mail, there would have been enough junk mail to arrouse suspicion? It's hard for me to visualize how this could happen.
There was no rent. He didn't own it either. It was an apartment complex/building that the company he was working for built. The article says it failed.
International Level: Diplomat / Political Participation: 320 32%
That's amazing. It does make you wonder about the family. I mean, even if they wanted to respect his privacy, 20 years seems like a long time to go without contacting someone. I wonder if that kind of thing has happened before, or if there are other skeletons in the city somewhere, waiting to be discovered.