Osaka man arrested for alleged body abandonment says corpse is his ‘mother’

Osaka Prefectural Police’s Yodogawa Police Station is seen in Osaka’s Yodogawa Ward. (Mainichi/Yusuke Kori)

OSAKA — A 42-year-old man was arrested July 12 on suspicion of abandoning the corpse of a woman at his home in this western Japan city.

Koji Urata is specifically accused of abandoning the woman’s body in a room of an apartment complex in Osaka’s Yodogawa Ward. According to Osaka Prefectural Police’s Yodogawa Police Station, he admitted to the allegations, and said, “The corpse is my 75-year-old mother who died in early June.”

On the evening of July 11, a real estate company employee who visited Urata’s home to negotiate eviction terms called police to report that “the resident said his mother died a month ago and the body is still there.”

Officers arrived at the scene to find the body lying face up on a bed without any visible external injuries. The police station is investigating the woman’s identity and cause of death.

(Japanese original by Ryoko Kijima, Osaka City News Department)