Japan: 61-year-old man keeps his father's body indoors for a month instead of burying for fear of feeling lonely when he is alone.

The Tokyo District Court in Japan last month tried the unidentified man on charges of failing to report to the local authorities about the 91-year-old's death.

His father died on the morning of July 31 in a small apartment in Adachi district, Tokyo. However, instead of organizing a funeral and burial of his late father, this man kept his father's body in the house for a month later.

Every day he bathed and dressed his father, even though his body began to decompose. Everything was only discovered by neighbors unpleasant smell and reported to the police. He was arrested in late August.

In the trial, the man said that he did not want to bury his father for fear of being alone. "I could not call an ambulance for fear that when my father was taken away, I was alone in this house," the 61-year-old told the prosecutors.

He moved to the apartment in Adachi when he was a middle school student. After leaving school, he worked in a clothing store.

After his mother died of cancer when he was 20, he quit his job and stayed home. His father, who worked as a security guard for the high school near his home, repeatedly advised his son to find a job but eventually gave up, when his son just liked to hang around at home cleaning and cooking. The father and son only lived on the meager salary from the security work and later on the father's pension.

When the prosecutor asked what he was going to do about his father's body, the man said he didn't know what to do next. "I have no one to talk to, so I just want to keep things the way my father was alive," he answered.

He denied the prosecutor's allegations that he wanted to hide his father's body in order to continue receiving the late father's pension. The prosecutor proposed a one-year sentence, but after consideration, the Tokyo District Court granted the suspended sentence to the defendant.

The case raises concerns about the hikikomori phenomenon, people who spend their entire lives indoors and clinging to their parents in Japan. The hikikomori often do not know what to do when a loved one dies.

The Japanese government estimates there are 1.15 million hikikomori in the country. However, many experts believe that this number is too small compared to reality. Saito Tamaki, a professor at Tsukuba University, warned that the number of hikikomori could reach 10 million.

Makoto Watanabe, an associate professor at Hokkaido Bunkyo University, points out that hikikomori in Japan have been around since the 1970s, though at that time it was not yet called, and these people are now in their 50s - 60.

"It is common sense for a child to take care of his or her parents during their old years, but in Japan we are witnessing this responsibility being reversed into parents taking care of their children until they die." Watanabe says. "We currently have no solution to this situation."

The Japanese government has organized a number of workshops to find solutions to support hikikomori and their families. But according to Professor Watanabe, most are focused on finding a solution to this phenomenon, but there has been no discussion of support for elderly hikikomori.

"We need to move to a new society where hikikomori are welcome and treated better," Watanabe said. "I think a solution is needed to help people who want to give society back to the community."