Japanese man returns home one year after he was supposedly cremated

A Japanese man in his 40s who went missing last year but was found, confirmed dead by the police and cremated, shocked his family when, a year later, he returned home alive and well.

After her husband went missing in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture in Japan last year, the man’s wife filed a missing person’s report with the local police.

On June 21, 2017, an unconscious man was found in the Edo River in Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward.

The man died in hospital shortly afterwards, and although he had no identification, police concluded his facial and body features matched those of the missing man.

The family was called to corroborate his identity, and his wife and two relatives confirmed the man was indeed her husband.

Generally, when families confirm the identity of a deceased person, further tests are not deemed necessary in Japan. As such, police changed his status from ‘missing’ to ‘dead by drowning’.

The man’s body was handed over to his family, and they had him cremated.

That is, until the missing husband knocked on the door on last week, a year after ‘his’ cremation.

The shocking turn of events was reported to the police who, on doing further investigations, found the body they had handed over to the family for cremation was in fact that of another missing person, a Tokyo resident in his 30s.

Police say lessons will be learnt from the case to prevent similar mistakes being made in future.

– AFP