The apartment in Kawasaki Prefecture where the murder of Sachiyo Tsujimura (54). (Image via: TV Tokyo)

Couple Murdered an Elderly Woman in Kawasaki

KAWASAKI - Japanese just seems to forget how to respect their elders. On Friday (7/6), a couple murdered an elder woman in Asao Ward, Kawasaki. The gruesome episode occurred in the morning of the day. The couple, Takeyuki Tanaka (23) and Sachiko Yamada (32), killed Sachiyo Tsujimura (54), at their own apartment.

At 6.55 a.m local time, the neighbors, living just next to the couple, heard a loud argument came from their apartment. Allegedly, they were arguing about financial matters. The couple was unemployed. The situation seemed to get worse, so one of the neighbor called 110 (Japanese 911).

When the police came to the crime scene, the door was locked, so they returned later. About 6 hours later, the police came back to find that the door was unlocked. However, the police found the corpse of Tsujimura laying on the floor with wound all over her head. Meanwhile, the couple was nowhere to be seen at the apartment.

The police then widened their searching range, and found the couple at a train station the same night. Tanaka and Yamada then were charged with murder the following day. The pair admitted their crime, and they killed Tsujimura by beating her head.

The police suspiced the motive has something to do with the fact that they were business acquaintances. 

This was not the first case of murder against the elders. Just last month, on Thursday (23/5), where Tomoki Nemoto (23), an ex-worker at a nursing home, beat Kihachiro Kurosawa (83), an elder who resided at the nursing home to death. Nemoto did his cowardice act in the middle of the night by kicking the poor old man. The next day the elder died with broken ribs and internal bleeding. Thanks to his last message & camera surveillance, Nemoto was arrested.

While the Japanese are known to adhere to the moral values and reverence to the elders, it seems the value is deteriorating slowly. Hence, with these incidents, the urge to promote this value is required to maintain moral stability in Japan once more.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/crime/couple-arrested-over-murder-of-54-year-old-woman-in-kawasaki