It has been reported by multiple outlets that an 81-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly pushing his disabled wife into the sea, saying he was "tired of taking care of her".
According to the reports, Hiroshi Fujiwara, from the eastern Japanese town of Oiso, Kanagawa, was arrested on November 3 for allegedly killing his 79-year-old wheelchair-bound wife after he took care of her for over four decades.
Per the South China Morning Post, Fujiwara confessed after his arrest that he drove his wife, Teruko Fujiwara, to a pier in Oiso and pushed her into the waters.
Local outlet Mainichi reported that authorities in Oiso apprehended the suspect after his eldest son called them to say: "My father said he pushed my mother [into the sea]."
The married couple lived alone in an apartment in the seaside town, with Teruko only receiving care from her husband, per Daily Mail.
On Friday (November 4), Kanagawa Prefecture police said that Fujiwara was arrested a day after the incident and taken into police custody on suspicion of murder, per the Independent.
According to Mainichi, just after the incident, a nearby fisherman made an emergency call to police, saying that someone was floating on the water.
The outlet reported that the elderly woman was taken to the hospital after emergency services took her out of the sea, but she was soon pronounced dead.
Per the Daily Mail, one of the couple’s neighbors - shocked upon hearing the news - said: "He is friendly and often gave a ride to his wife, who I understand was bed-ridden."
"He was devoted to his wife, and there was nothing to suggest [he could kill her], but I guess he was struggling inside," they added.
In Japan - which has a population of 126 million - more than one-quarter of people are aged 65 and above and that ratio is projected to reach one-third of the population by 2050.
After this incident, many social media users in Japan have blamed the government for apparently disregarding the abuse senior citizens face in the country.
South China Morning Post reported that a survey by the health and welfare ministry in Japan discovered that there were 17,281 incidents of elderly people being physically assaulted by family members in 2020 - with 25 deaths occurring as a result.
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