News On Japan

Man arrested for killing adoptive mother dies in apparent suicide in detention cell

Sep 04, 2022 (Japan Today) - A 28-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of killing his 54-year-old adoptive mother last year has died after being found unresponsive in his detention cell in Osaka, authorities said Friday.

Police said Rin Takai apparently hanged himself with a T-shirt sometime before 7 a.m. on Thursday in the cell on the third floor of the police station in Fukushima Ward, Kyodo News reported. He was the only occupant of the cell.

A guard found him unresponsive while making his rounds. Takai was taken to hospital where he died late Thursday.

Takai, who claimed to be a consultant residing in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, was arrested in July for forging the names of his adoptive mother's relatives on adoption papers. On Aug 25, police served him with a second arrest warrant on suspicion of killing his adoptive mother, Naoko Takai in July 2021.

Police allege that Takai committed the murder over a ¥150 million life insurance policy. The victim was found dead in the bathtub, partially submerged, with a bandage wrapped tightly around her right wrist, at around 11 a.m. on July 26, at her house in Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture. The victim, a company employee who lived alone, was last seen at her office on July 21, prior to the long holiday weekend for the Tokyo Olympics. She was due back at work on July 26. ...continue reading

Source: FNNプライムオンライン

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Japan’s World Cup campaign ended in the cruelest possible fashion on June 29, as Gabriel Martinelli scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to give Brazil a 2-1 victory over the Samurai Blue in their knockout match in Houston. Japan had led in the first half and were still level at 1-1 in the final moments, but Martinelli’s late strike sent Brazil into the Round of 16 and eliminated Japan from the tournament.

Strong earthquakes have continued to shake parts of Japan in recent weeks, with 11 temblors measuring lower 5 or above on the Japanese seismic intensity scale recorded across the country since April 2026.

A Kintetsu Railway train derailed inside Kyoto Station on the morning of June 29, forcing partial suspensions on the Kintetsu Kyoto Line for the rest of the day and causing long delays that hit commuters, students and tourists.

A section of stone wall at Hikone Castle, one of Japan’s few surviving original Edo-period castles and a National Treasure whose main keep remains intact more than 400 years after its construction, collapsed after heavy rain caused by Typhoons No. 7 and No. 8, Hikone city officials said.

Japan advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup after a 1-1 draw with Sweden on June 25, finishing second in Group F and setting up a Round of 32 clash with Brazil in Houston.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

Prosecutors sought life imprisonment for Yukio Tanaka, a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, as his trial over the 2013 fatal shooting of Osho Food Service president Takayuki Ohigashi concluded at the Kyoto District Court, with a verdict scheduled to be handed down on October 16.

Shinjuku Ward, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department have jointly established a Kabukicho measures council to strengthen efforts to prevent young people known as "Toyoko Kids" from being drawn into crime in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.

A 23-year-old Chinese man has been arrested and sent to prosecutors on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in injury after allegedly crashing a Porsche into two vehicles at an intersection in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward on June 9, leaving three people with minor injuries.

The number of people with dementia or suspected dementia who were reported missing to police totaled 17,345 in 2025, down by nearly 800 from the previous year but still at a high level, according to a National Police Agency summary.

Removal work has finally begun on a massive hose that washed ashore on the coast of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, six months ago, but crews are already facing difficulties because the structure is filled with a large volume of water.

A 50-year-old woman has been arrested in Kobe on suspicion of abandoning the dismembered body of her former husband in a large freezer at a condominium unit, where she allegedly continued paying rent for more than 14 years while hiding his death.

A 50-year-old member of an organization affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate has been arrested in Yamaguchi Prefecture after nearly nine years on the run over the 2017 fatal shooting of a bodyguard for the leader of a rival group in Kobe.

An Iranian national has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to smuggle more than 40 kilograms of stimulants from the United Arab Emirates into Japan in March, after customs officers found the drugs hidden in the bottom section of a machine used in the process of making naan bread.