Removing papers stuck to the floor was also burdensome (image: courtesy of Risk Benefit). Tanaka says, “The body was found almost melted in the bathtub. When we contacted the police, they told us we had to do the cleanup. I didn’t even know about special cleaning services at the time. I didn’t think I could do it myself, so I tried “DIYs”. I didn’t know the market price, and the total cost was about 1.3 million yen, but even after the cleaning was completed, the smell was not gone at all. Apparently, the smell had seeped into the pipes at the back of the bathroom drain, and no matter what I did, I could not get it out. We paid several contractors several hundred thousand yen for more, but to no avail. In the end, we had to replace the pipes and everything else, which cost us a lot of money.”   In the case of a death in a bathroom, it is common to have to replace not only the bathtub but also the drainpipes, and in the case of a death on tatami mats, even the floor and pillars soaked with bodily fluids may have to be replaced. Although it depends on the circumstances of the solitary death and the contractor, the cost of today’s special cleaning services can run into the hundreds of thousands of yen, or even over a million yen in some cases.