IWAKI, Japan, Aug. 29 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Police said Sunday they had arrested the 70-year-old daughter of a woman registered as 102 years old but most likely dead, for allegedly defrauding the city of Iwaki,Fukushima Prefecture of 300,000 yen in special benefits payable to her mother if she were alive.
Aiko Watanabe, the fifth daughter of Michi Watanabe, turned herself in and was arrested Saturday after skeletal remains were found at their home. She told investigators that her mother died in about 1996 but she received the money and used it for her living expenses, they said.
The police believe that the remains are those of Michi Watanabe, given her daughter's account and autopsy results indicating she died more than five years ago, and are now investigating if the suspect also falsely received her pension benefits.
Based on the suspect's allegedly false response to an inquiry about elderly people, the city paid the benefits for her mother's centenary in September 2007, according to the police.
The office lost contact with her on Aug. 19 after trying to confirm the presence of her mother following revelations that several centenarians are unaccounted for in other parts of Japan.