Man Arrested For Dumping Dads Ashes In Metro Bathroom

Story ByAlex CopeSub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyAsia Wire Report 

This Japanese man has been arrested for dumping his father’s remains in a metro station bathroom because his mother did not want him to bring her ex-husband’s ashes home.

Local media report 53-year-old Hiroaki Hishijima has been arrested in the Japanese capital Tokyo on suspicion of abandonment of human remains.

Picture Credit: AsiaWire

Local media report Hishijima’s father, who has not been named in reports, had died in September 2019. The father, 83, was reportedly divorced from Hishijima’s mother and lived away from the family.

The Municipal Government in Tokyo handled his cremation and then asked Hishijima to pick up the ashes the following month.

The 53-year-old went to pick up the urn and there are conflicting reports as to whether his mother told him not to bring the ashes home or if the son was scared bringing them home would anger his mother. The mother reportedly did not want to take on the costs of burying the remains.

The son was reportedly at a loss as to what to do with the ashes and allegedly ended up leaving the urn in a stall in the men’s bathroom of the Marunouchi Line of the Tokyo Metro at Tokyo Station.

Reports state staff at the station found the urn and contacted the police who traced the ashes back to Hishijima.

He was arrested for abandonment of human remains which can be punished by a prison sentence of up to three years. Local media report he has confessed to the crime to cops but it is unclear if he has been charged.

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