TOKYO (TR) – Investigative sources with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police have revealed that the wife of an editor at publisher Kodansha accused of strangling his wife to death in the residence they shared in Bunkyo Ward had previously complained of domestic violence, reports TV Asahi (Jan. 13).
According to the sources, the wife of Park Jung-hyun, a 41-year-old deputy editor for the magazine Weekly Morning, consulted with the local ward office about abuse by Park one year after the birth of their first son three years ago.
“He took childcare leave [from work], but he did not help with raising the children,” Kanako reportedly said. She then asked Park to quit his job, but she became a victim of abuse from him over a one-year period.
Park was arrested on murder charges on Tuesday. The editor denies the charges, telling police that Kanako committed suicide in their residence they share in Bunkyo Ward early on August 9 of last year.
At around 2:50 a.m. on that day, Park telephoned emergency services to report that his “wife had collapsed.” Officers arriving at the residence found the Kanako lying face-up at the base of a staircase. She was confirmed dead about one hour later at a nearby hospital.
According to police, an autopsy later revealed the cause of death to be suffocation due to pressure applied around the neck.
Park, who at the time lived in the residence with his wife and their four children, initially claimed that his wife “fell down the stairs.” However, he later changed his story, saying she took her own life by hanging herself with his jacket on the railing of the stairs.
The results of an investigation have caused police to suspect that Park strangled his wife in the bedroom and moved her corpse to the staircase.
Park joined Kodansha in 1999. The suspect was the editor in charge of the manga “Attack on Titan” upon its launch in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009. In June of last year, he moved to the editorial department for Weekly Morning.
