Nude confinement: ‘Parents’ say eldest son wasted away in excrement

The police officers who rushed to the scene were said to have turned away.

The naked man, who appeared to be in his thirties, was slumped over at the scene. His hands and feet were bound with handcuffs and ropes. The area around him was covered in feces and urine, and emitted a strange odor.

On January 31, the Kanagawa Prefectural Police’s Asao Police Station arrested the parents and three others on suspicion of confining their 37-year-old son. The three suspects arrested were Naoki Yokoyama (70), an unemployed man living in Kawasaki City’s Asao Ward, his wife Junko (65), and their eldest daughter Nanako (36). They are believed to have conspired to bind the hands and feet of their eldest son, Yuichiro, and confine him near the entrance of their home for four months between May and September last year.

The police were contacted on September 6 last year. Naoki called 110, saying that his son had died. When police officers arrived, they found Yuichiro dead, completely naked. His hands and feet were restrained with handcuffs and ropes so that he could not escape. The results of the autopsy revealed that Yuichiro died of an infection caused by bacteria contained in his excrement. It is also known that he had suffered from endogenous cerebral hemorrhage.

In response to the investigation, Naoki admitted his guilt, saying, “There is no doubt that I made it impossible for him to go outside. On the other hand, his wife and eldest daughter denied the charges, saying, “I don’t think I illegally detained him,” and “I don’t know why I was arrested. The police believe that Yuichiro died of exhaustion due to the confinement, and are investigating the case on suspicion of abandonment of a responsible person.

17 years of seclusion

The scene was a two-story wooden house. According to the police investigation, Yuichiro had been living as a recluse at home since he dropped out of college about 17 years ago. He sometimes shouted loudly and was violent towards his family.

In May of last year, he once went outdoors naked and caused a big commotion. That’s when it started. That’s when Yuichiro’s confinement began. When his family consulted with the ward office, they were told that he was suspected of having schizophrenia. However, there was no evidence that Yuichiro had been diagnosed by a doctor.

The parents made the following statement to the police. We didn’t want to bother the people around us by letting our son out.

Yasuhei Ogawa, a crime journalist and former detective of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police who worked at the Asou Police Station, the police station in charge of this case, said.

The family should have relied on the government more before the incident occurred. If there was a possibility that the eldest son was acting out and hurting himself or others, they could have hospitalized him with the help of the government. I think the reason she didn’t do that was that her vanity got in the way. Aso Ward has many high-class residential areas and is home to people with relatively high incomes. Perhaps their desire not to be known by their wealthy neighbors came first and they tried to manage on their own.

Another problem was the disregard for the eldest son’s health and hygiene. If he is naked and covered in excrement, he will naturally get sick. It is only natural that he would become weak. I can’t help but think that they were abandoning their responsibility to protect her.

There are problems in every family that only the relatives can understand. Sometimes, the situation may become serious. But if there is a problem in the family, we should do our best without worrying about looking good. When a precious life is lost, there is no way that the parents can say, “I didn’t want to bother the people around me.