Japanese man, 81, pushed disabled wife into the sea because ‘he had grown tired of taking care of her’

His son calls the local police and tells them ‘my dad says he pushed mom into the sea’

File. Elderly people walk in the street at Kouganji Temple in Tokyo, Japan (AFP/Getty)

An 81-year-old man in Japan allegedly pushed his disabled wife into the sea, claiming that he was “tired of taking care of her” for 40 years.

Police in Oiso, Kanagawa prefecture in Japan, said that Hiroshi Fujiwara, 81, pled guilty and admitted to the charges. He told the police that on 3 November, around 5.30pm local time, he drove his wheelchair-bound wife, 79-year-old Teruko, to a pier in Oiso and pushed her into the waters.

Local media reported that Mr Fujiwara admitted to his crime to his elder son soon after. The son, Japan Times reported, called the local police to inform them. “My dad says he pushed mom into the sea”, he told the police.

The couple lived by themselves and the husband told the police that he had been taking care of his disabled wife for over 40 years.

On Friday, Kanagawa Prefecture Police’s Oiso police station said that Mr Fujiwara was arrested a day after the incident and taken into police custody on suspicion of murder.

On 3 November one person called the police around 7pm after he saw a body floating in the waters, the Mainichi reported.

The 79-year-old woman was taken to the hospital after emergency services took her out of the sea, but she was declared dead.

In Japan, out o the total population of 126 million, more than one-quarter of people are aged 65 and above.

And after this incident, social media users in Japan have accused the government of neglecting the abuse senior citizens face in the country.

South China Morning Post reported that a survey by the health and welfare ministry in Japan found that there were 17,281 incidents of elderly people being physically assaulted by family members in 2020, with 25 deaths occurring as a result.