In April 2020, a body was found in an apartment in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
The name and household registration of the deceased are unknown, and the age is probably around 75 years old.
After a follow-up forensic examination, the deceased was confirmed to be "died alone".
Seeing this relatively obscure word, you may be curious, what is called lonely death?
Lonely death can be understood as a lonely death, that is, a person dies of a sudden illness or for other reasons.
Photograph of the deceased before his death
With the increase of the aging of the population, there are more and more cases of elderly people living alone "dying alone".
In Japan, where the aging population is a serious problem, "lonely death" is not uncommon.
Reading this, you may have questions.
Since it is not uncommon, why has this woman's death attracted widespread attention from all walks of life?
In fact, the reason why her death has attracted attention is because of her confusing identity and the huge legacy she left behind!
After her death, the person who came to deal with her funeral found 34 million yen in cash (about 2 million yuan at the time) in the safe at her home.
Safe deposit box with cash in the house
Who is this lady who "died alone"? Why is she here? What happened to her huge inheritance in the end?
Let's find out today!
Confusing identity
On an ordinary morning in April 2020, a landlady in Amagasaki City, Japan, went out to walk her dog as usual.
Passing by the tenant's house, she wanted to send a greeting out of kindness.
Strangely, after ringing the doorbell repeatedly, there was no answer in the house.
The landlady initially thought that the tenant was just out and not at home.
Just as she was about to leave, she stumbled upon the vegetation in front of the house, as if it hadn't been taken care of in a while.
The tenant of this house is an old lady who lives alone but loves cleanliness.
The home of Chizuruko Tanaka
According to her character, it is impossible for the vegetation to grow so haphazardly.
Thinking of this, an ominous premonition welled up in her heart.
The old man is so old, living here alone, can't something happen?
To confirm her conjecture, she knocked on the door again.
As we approached the crack in the door, a faint stench came from inside the house.
There are signs that something has happened to the occupants of the house.
The landlady hurriedly called the police, and when the police arrived, she opened the door and a foul smell came to her face.
Walking into the house, the old lady had long since lost her breath.
"Household registration, address, name unknown, age about 75 years old, female, medium build, missing fingers on the right hand"
A simple one-line text from the police is the full introduction to her!
Report on Chizuruko Tanaka
The police learned a name from the landlady, a name that she was not sure of being true or false - Chizuruko Tanaka.
Unlike other deceased who "died alone", Chizuruko Tanaka did not leave any information that would prove her identity.
The most paper item left in the house where she died was cash in a safe, which amounted to 34 million yen.
The landlady did not know about her past, and the only information she could give was that Chizuruko Tanaka moved in in March 1982, and the name left on the lease agreement was Mr. Tanaka.
It was the landlord who signed the contract with this tenant, but unfortunately, the landlord had long since left.
As a result, the landlady had little knowledge of the signing of the contract on that day, and she did not know who Mr. Tanaka was on the contract.
The police wondered why the landlady had never thought of investigating the identity of the tenant.
Chiko Tanaka
The landlord's answer was that the tenant was so friendly, well-behaved and friendly.
Compared to her character, personal information is really harmless.
In the eyes of the landlady, Chizuruko Tanaka is gentle and elegant, and she is very happy every time she talks to her.
The two have been together for so long, and she has never noticed that Chizuruko Tanaka is missing a finger.
In ordinary conversations, she rarely mentioned her past, so the landlady knew nothing about her past.
There was no way, the police had to enter the name Chizuruko Tanaka into the system first, hoping to find personal information about her.
Unfortunately, the system doesn't show this name.
can save such a huge amount of money, Chizuruko Tanaka will definitely not be a black household who has never worked.
Information on Chizuruko Tanaka
If you're not a black household, why can't you find her information?
The police officers who were investigating together suddenly remembered that the landlady had mentioned earlier that it was Mr. Tanaka who had signed the rental contract with them.
What if Chizuruko Tanaka changed her surname to Tanaka after marrying her husband?
If this name was really changed after marriage, then what was her original name?
If you're married, why do you live here alone?
The ups and downs of life
Searching for the identity of the deceased is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the police can only pin their hopes on the house where the deceased lived before his death.
They searched the house again.
Fortunately, this time it was no longer for nothing.
They found a seal with the word "Chongzong" engraved on it.
seal
In addition to the seal, they also found a certificate of work-related injury.
It clearly states that the wound on the old man's finger was unfortunately caught in the machine and twisted while working in the cannery.
In those days, it was rare for a woman to be able to go out to work and have an official status as a worker.
It is precisely because of this that the police decided to start with the factory.
Disappointingly, the factory did not find any information about her, and the list of retirees due to injuries did not find anyone surnamed Tanaka.
The only one named Qianhezi, surnamed "Chongzong".
Seeing the word "Chongzong", the police immediately thought of the seal left in the house at that time.
Image source network
If the deceased's surname is "Chongzong", then everything makes sense.
The surname Oki is relatively rare in Japan, and there are probably only more than 100 households with the surname Okimu.
Compared with the previous "needle in a haystack" method, it is obviously much easier to check the more than 100 households one by one.
After that, the police further narrowed down the scope of the search based on the information left in the work-related injury documents.
The documents mentioned that the deceased had three sisters, the second in line, and had left home at an early age.
Later, according to the information in the documents, the police found Chong Zong's name.
Chongzong's mother happened to have three sisters, and it was even more coincidental that his second aunt left her hometown when she was young and was never heard from again.
Masana Fushu
After receiving the call from the police, Chong Zongzheng hurriedly went to the local government to transfer the relevant household registration and check the relevant information of the deceased.
Luckily, almost every piece of information is right.
But unfortunately, the most important age is never right.
The age recorded in Chizuruko Tanaka's pension notes is a full twelve years older than the age of the second aunt of Oki Mune.
The police were once again in a difficult situation, and considering that there was an error in the information they had previously found in the rental house, they did not give up the clue because of the age difference.
Chong Zongzheng proposed that he hoped to do a blood test, and the identification report was the only thing that would not go wrong.
While waiting for the appraisal report, everyone learned roughly about the life of his second aunt, Chongzong Qianhezi, from Chongzong Zhengming.
According to the household registration records, Chongzong Chizuruko never got married in his life.
She left her hometown at the age of 35 and has not been heard from since.
Chizuruko Tanaka's hometown
At that time, it was a period of rapid economic development, and the vast world outside seemed to be more attractive than that of my hometown.
According to the memories of Chongzong Masana, he had met this aunt when he was a child.
But because time had passed, he had forgotten his aunt's appearance, and the only thing he remembered was the long hair.
He remembered that his aunt sang very well, and when he was a child, he would often hum unknown songs and be happy every day.
After that, Masasa Oki also took the investigators to the place where Chizuruko Oki lived as a child and found her former classmate.
Most of Chizuruko's classmates have passed away, and the few remaining classmates are also full of gray hair.
The only memory they have of Chizuruko Oki is her beautiful singing voice, she seems to love singing, even in the time of war, her singing voice has never stopped.
Chizuruko Tanaka in junior high school (front row, third from right)
Later, the war ended, and Hiroshima evacuated the students of the national school.
Since then, they have never seen this old classmate who sings like a yellow bird.
The policeman who accompanied the investigation suddenly realized after listening to the story told by the old comrade.
Chizuruko Tanaka's birthday happened to be the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and that year, Chizuruko Okimune was just 12 years old.
What if Chizuruko Oki saw the explosion as his new life?
The investigation is in full swing here, and there are new results from genetic testing there.
The results of genetic testing showed that Chizuru Tanaka was none other than Chizuru Okimune!
At this point, most of the mystery of the identity of the deceased has finally been solved.
The only unsolved mystery is why she changed her name to Chizuruko Tanaka.
According to the household registration records, she is not married at all, so there is no so-called need to change her husband's surname because of marriage.
The life of Chizuruko Tanaka
So why did she choose to change her name to Tanaka? Where did Mr. Tanaka, who went to sign a rental contract, go?
The police launched an investigation into this "Mr. Tanaka", but unfortunately, after some investigation, they did not find any useful information.
This mysterious Mr. Tanaka doesn't exist, and no one knows what the two of them went through together.
No one knows why Chizuruko Okimune was willing to take the initiative to change her surname to Tanaka without getting married.
These puzzles were eventually buried with the ashes of Chizuruko Okimune!
After the mystery of identity was solved, the huge inheritance left by Chizuruko Okimune was also reasonably distributed in accordance with the inheritance law at the time.
The "popularity" of "lonely death"
As Japan's population ages, there are more and more lonely deaths in society.
From January to March 2024 alone, as many as 17,000 people over the age of 65 in Japan who live alone and die in their own homes.
"Lonely death" has long been a pain in Japan.
In order to solve this pain point, as early as 2021, the Japanese cabinet added a new post of "Minister of Loneliness".
Japan set up corresponding institutions (source network)
The task of this position is simple: reduce loneliness!
Seeing this profession, everyone may think that the Japanese are really hypocritical, and they actually have to set up an official position to solve loneliness.
In fact, this is really not just "hypocrisy".
Loneliness is due to the indifference of the Japanese themselves, and they do not want to be influenced by others, nor do they want to influence others.
NHK has made a special documentary to document the phenomenon of loneliness in Japanese society.
The name of this documentary is "The Society of the Lost", and the lonely people are also called "the unlucky".
Lack of fate refers to the absence of "geographical", "social", and "blood" relationships.
To put it simply, it is a person who is far away from home, has neither friends nor relatives.
Image source network
Most of these people leave home voluntarily and choose to be "lonely".
Rather than being bound by various emotional relationships, they are more eager for the rest of their lives to be "free".
With the increase in the number of "unfortunate people", the "lonely death" related industries have developed rapidly.
The endings of the "unlucky" are almost always "lonely deaths", and their bodies are often found only after they have decomposed.
You know, most of the body's tissues are water.
Two to three weeks after death, bodily fluids come out and seep into the floor, and the smell of decay attracts all kinds of mosquitoes.
When a "lonely death" is discovered, the police and the medical examiner first conduct a search of the house, which often makes the already cluttered house even more filthy.
After the inspection, the police will entrust a professional floor scrubber to clean the room.
Image source network
Because the house is extremely difficult to clean, normal cleaning companies are rarely willing to take on such tasks.
Thus, a company specializing in "floor washing" was born.
Due to the "porridge more monks and less", its profits are very considerable!
Driven by money, in 2010, there were hundreds of companies in Japan that specialized in "washing floors".
In 2018, the number of such companies exceeded 5,000.
However, the number of "lonely deaths" among elderly people living alone in Japan has been rising.
Even if there are more than 5,000 companies that undertake "floor washing", they are still "in short supply".
Seeing this, you may wonder why so many people in Japan choose to be lonely.
Is it just because you're afraid of trouble?
Image source network
Of course not!
After World War II, Japan's domestic development was severely restricted, and the bubble economy collapsed.
Some people at the bottom have lost the goal of struggle, and they give up getting married and having children, and choose to "put it on the".
For example, Ichita Miyagawa in the Japanese documentary "Elderly Apartment Cleaning Team".
Because of the economic downturn, he was laid off many times and was forced to change many jobs, and the frustrations of life smoothed his edges and corners.
In the end, he chose to "lie flat and rot".
Ichito Miyagawa, who was unemployed at home, lived on his father's pension and savings from birth to death.
This room, where he grew up, records his life.
Image source network
Most of the photos in the house were taken when he was a child, with only a few photos of his youth, few photos of his middle age, and even fewer photos of his old age.
It is not difficult to see from the photos that he also had dreams when he was a child.
But as he grew older, the cruelty of reality hit him again and again, and his eyes gradually lost their light.
The once high-spirited teenager eventually became decadent.
For people like them, "death" is a relief.
It's not so much that they are old people who died alone, but that they died of old age alone.
summary
Since the 90s of the last century, the number of "lonely deaths" in Japan has steadily increased.
Today, among the "lonely deaths", there are not only elderly people living alone, but also many depressed middle-aged people and young people who have been devastated by the heart.
Image source network
It is not themselves who make them "die alone", but the current desperate social environment in Japan.
Resources:
Who is the unidentified woman who died alone leaving 34 million yen in cash------ Kyodo News