You might remember the little slice and dice newsy bit about a young man’s torso and bottom bit turning up in Shibuya and Shinjuku was the result of domestic issues. Now it appears that the wife did it, as their relationship soon went on a rapid decline a few months after marrying in 2003. The bevy of reasons given by the suspect include ongoing arguments, the husband’s disdain for what she was doing and belittling her, and possible physical abuse. The English reports seem to be hedging this last part. However, the final straw is a doozy though.
After the husband made a stellar flub of coming home drunk and going to bed early, the wife hit him on the head with a wine bottle (sounds like someone made a romantic dinner). After he died she found the body too heavy to move and bought a saw, etc. and proceeded to saw the body apart and place the parts in plastic bags for disposal. The head is in Machida park, and the arm parts are either in the burnable or non-burnable tips.
One quote from one news from gosh-knows-where has the wife saying “I could not be the person I am because our ways of living never matched… After he assaulted me, I decided to kill him.” Well there could be an argument for battered wife syndrome, but there was a two day delay from death to dissection, which might point to something more than uncontrolled lashback. There should be more about this story soon, but yikes…
The other “family issue” that led to a young woman being killed and later dismembered by her brother has also been cruising the news circuit for the past week. The brother had been avoiding the victim for three years because he felt she put him down, but had been talking prior to the death. After whacking her on the head with a wooden sword (several times apparently), they talked about family things etc. He gave her a towel when she said she felt cold, but he lost his rag when she said he had no dreams and choked her with it (the towel, not the dreams). Most of the body was found in his closet, but some had been put in the trash disposal unit (in the sink?). Another grim tale that is certain to get a mountain of coverage.
People lose it all the time, but I think Japan is a place where you learn how to suck it up so you can go forward with a good face. This is good, but when the rare time comes that someone snaps, that inner spring is so tightly wound that the snap can be an awesome and unpredictable explosion of emotion.
