In Fukuoka, Japan, a 59-year-old man is in police custody for the murder of his parents, ages 87 and 88. One of the reasons he gave for killing them was that his anime watching kept getting interrupted.
According to Yomiuri Shimbun and The Tokyo Reporter, Junji Matsumoto served as his parents’ caregiver. “It was bothersome that whenever I watched anime, my parents interrupted me,” he said (via Yomiuri). “I couldn’t stand it.”
The three of them—Junji, his father Hirokazu, and his mother Makie—lived together, with the parents getting by on their pensions, and requiring wheelchairs to get around. It is unclear if their son had an occupation other than their caregiver.
Matsumoto killed his parents after his father asked for help going to the restroom. It’s believed this happened on the night of June 20. “During a good scene in an anime, my father repeatedly called for me to take care of him,” said Matsumoto (via Yomiuri). “Because he complained about me, I killed him.” He then did the same to his mother, reports Fukuoka TNC News.
On June 23, Matsumoto fled his family home, first by bicycle, before boarding trains to travel across Japan, going as far as Shizuoka, Yamagata, and Akita. The murders and his escape made national news in Japan.
After a relative wasn’t able to get in touch with the family, on June 28, police arrived at the residence, where they discovered two bodies in a taped-shut industrial refrigerator. Later, authorities identified them as Matsumoto’s parents. An autopsy did not immediately reveal the cause of death.
Finally, on July 5, police captured Matsumoto in a hotel parking lot in Kyoto. It seems that his hotel stays led the police to his location. He was arrested for abandoning a corpse and admitted to the murders, saying he strangled his father with an electrical cord. The authorities are investigating the matter further.