TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested writer Nozomi Takashima after the discovery of a corpse inside his apartment in Shinagawa Ward.
On Tuesday afternoon, a bailiff for the Tokyo District Court entered the residence of Takashima, 64, to enforce an eviction order and the found the skeletal remains inside, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Dec. 18).
According to the Osaki Police Station, the body is the full skeleton of an adult, suggesting that it has been several years since the death of the person.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse on Tuesday, Takashima admitted to the allegations. “I was so upset I didn’t know what to do. I ended up escaping reality,” he said.
The bailiff entered the residence after Takashima had fallen behind on his rent.
Takashima is a fifth-year student at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. In 1997, he wrote “The Secret to Making Money the Takefuji Way: The God of Moneylending Is Here,” a book that chronicles the rise of chairman Yasuo Takei, the founder of the major consumer finance company Takefuji Corporation. The company went bankrupt in 2010.
Police are now seeking to confirm the identity of the body and the cause of death.