Japanese man, 61, kept father’s decomposing corpse for a month as he was scared to be alone

The case has refocused attention on the country’s more than 1 million hikikomori as the parents who cared for them are ageing and dying

Experts say there are currently no provisions to help these elderly social recluses

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Japan is expected to eventually have some 10 million social recluses, according to an expert. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:00pm, 9 Dec 2019Updated: 11:10pm, 9 Dec 2019

A Japanese court has taken pity on a hikikomori, or social recluse, who was charged with failing to report his father’s death – after he told the judge that he bathed and cared for the decomposing body for nearly a month because he was frightened to be without his only friend.

Prosecutors had been demanding a one-year prison sentence after he was found guilty, but the court decreed that his punishment would be a one-year term suspended for two years.

The case has refocused attention on the plight of the more than 1 million hikikomori across Japan, particularly because parents who have cared for their reclusive children for decades are now elderly and beginning to die.

The inevitable result, experts say, is a wave of middle-aged people who do not work, have limited social skills and have little or no experience of how to function in society – and who are being left without anyone to care for them.

The Tokyo District Court last month heard that the man, 61, who has not been named in the media, did not contest the prosecution’s allegations that he failed to report his father’s death. The defence denied, however, that he did so to continue claiming his late father’s pension.