<figure id="attachment_413256" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-413256" style="width: 1695px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="027a6268"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/02/14c4b1a97de300a007fa8a4c8d09b504.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-413256" class="wp-caption-text">Defendant Watanabe arrested and sent to prison in &#8217;23</figcaption></figure>
<h2> A &#8220;snarky&#8221; family relationship</h2>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> This case was brought by the defendant in order to escape from the victim (mother-in-law). Watanabe could not escape from the victim by any means other than committing the crime&#8221; (defense attorney).</span></p>
<p> On January 29, 2013, the first trial by jury was held at the Saitama District Court for Michiko Watanabe, 55, who is accused of murdering her mother-in-law (age 68 at the time), who lived with her, and dumping her corpse under the floor.</p>
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<p> When her defense attorney began his opening statement on the stand, Watanabe covered her face with her hands and began to cry.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On April 28, 2011, the victim&#8217;s eldest daughter, who lived in an apartment in Saitama City, called 110 and said, &#8216;My mother is dead. As the Saitama Prefectural Police interviewed the family, Watanabe, the wife of the victim&#8217;s eldest son, surfaced. She confessed to the crime and was arrested on suspicion of abandoning a corpse on the 29th.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Later, Watanabe stated, &#8220;I strangled my mother-in-law to death,&#8221; and was re-arrested on suspicion of murder on May 19. Watanabe said his motive was &#8216;I was being pursued every day that I had hidden money, and I was angry.</span></p>
<p> After her marriage, Watanabe lived with her husband and son in Niigata City, but around 2002, she moved to a maisonette-style apartment in Saitama City.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the apartment in Saitama City, she lived with her husband&#8217;s mother and two younger sisters, making a total of six people. The victim had been missing since the afternoon of the 22nd, but there was no sign that her family was worried or looking for her. There are many unknowns in this case, such as what kind of life they were leading for about a week before their bodies were found.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Treated like servants..."></div>
<h2>Go steal money from your parents&#8217; house.</h2>
<figure id="attachment_413266" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-413266" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="aa87a174"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/02/fa75d69978e667a38c23259ea688c76e-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-413266" class="wp-caption-text"> Saitama District Court, where the jury trial was held.</figcaption></figure>
<p> The defendant Watanabe, who cried incessantly at his first trial, was said to be at the bottom of the &#8220;family hierarchy.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The victim&#8217;s mother-in-law said that she was the &#8220;heart and soul of the Watanabe family. She ordered Watanabe, who was in the lowest position in the family, to get up by 5:00 a.m. She gave him detailed instructions about the color of food to put in his lunch box and the number of items for dinner, and she made him report to her when he came in and out of the house and whether he ate his dinner or not.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> At one point, the mother-in-law came up with the idea of extracting money from Watanabe&#8217;s parents&#8217; house. She called him and told him to &#8220;go steal money from his parents&#8217; house,&#8221; according to a script she had devised. In fact, between August 2006 and June 2009, Watanabe received more than 7.7 million yen from his parents&#8217; house and gave it to his mother-in-law. The dilemma of feeling guilty for lying to her own mother and cheating her out of money and not being able to disobey her mother-in-law&#8217;s orders made her mentally ill, and her mental condition deteriorated to the extent that she had to undergo treatment at a psychosomatic clinic.</span></p>
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<p> (The above-mentioned defense attorney). Because of the pain, she ran away from home for about a month from August &#8217;19 to a man in Iwate whom she had met on a game site. According to the defense attorney, the kickoff of the crime was in November &#8217;18, when he cheated his own mother out of money based on a script created by his mother-in-law, <span class="strongInContent">who said that he had to pay 3 million in alimony to the other wife by stalking her</span>.</p>
<p> When he met her at Niigata Station, his mother-in-law gave Watanabe 1.5 million yen, saying, &#8220;I <span class="strongInContent">don&#8217;t have any more money.</span> When he returned home, his mother-in-law was waiting for him at the entrance, inspected his belongings on the spot, and took the 1.5 million yen <span class="strongInContent">, saying, &#8220;I will take care of this.</span> The remaining 1.5 million yen was remitted later.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" I heard a buzzing sound."></div>
<h2>It was as if a fog had settled before my eyes.</h2>
<p> The life of cheating money from his parents&#8217; house according to his mother-in-law&#8217;s script came to an end when his mother-in-law passed away in &#8217;21.</p>
<p> However, around March of &#8217;23, the mother-in-law began to say <span class="strongInContent">, &#8220;I should have received 3 million yen [from the family home] in &#8217;18, but I only received 1.5 million yen</span>.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The mother-in-law insisted that he hand over the remaining 1.5 million yen. She refused to believe her when we told her that we had checked her belongings, and the same exchange continued day after day.</span></p>
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<p> This back-and-forth continued for weeks, and on April 22, 2011, Watanabe, who had been driven to the limit, suddenly felt as if a fog was hanging in front of his eyes and he could hear his mother-in-law&#8217;s voice in the distance. After hearing a snapping sound in his mind, Watanabe suddenly strangled his mother-in-law with a plastic cord and killed her, according to the defense.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8216;In order to draw any conclusions from this trial, we need to find out why defendant Watanabe killed his mother-in-law,&#8217; he said. Although this is a serious case of murder, the defense will be seeking a suspended sentence.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> The defense attorney ended his opening statement by saying this.</p>
<p> Mr. A, Watanabe&#8217;s husband and the victim&#8217;s eldest son, also appeared at the first trial. Mr. A, the victim&#8217;s eldest son, also appeared at the first trial to examine witnesses.</p>
<p> In the sequel article, &#8220;[A Body Found in Underfloor Storage] Saitama City Mother-in-law Murder Case: Shocking Reason Why Family Did Not Notice Mother&#8217;s Absence for a Week&#8221;, Mr. A&#8217;s testimony gradually reveals the relationship between Watanabe and the victim, and what kind of communication took place between the family during the week after the victim&#8217;s murder until her body was found. The story reveals the relationship between the victims and their family members.</p>
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<p> Read the sequel article <a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/413169">, &#8220;[A Body Found in Underfloor Storage] Saitama City Mother-in-law Murder Case, Shocking Reason Why Family &#8220;Didn&#8217;t Notice&#8221; Mother&#8217;s Absence for a Week</a> &#8220;.</p>
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 Nakahira Ryo

 Shinji Hasuo (first photo), Kyodo News (second photo)

 Michiko Watanabe, 55, is accused of murder and abandonment of a corpse for killing her mother-in-law, then 68, and dumping her body under the floor. Her motive was revealed at her first trial before a jury.

The “sniveling mother-in-law relationship” that drove a housewife in her fifties to commit a murder.

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