Hideki Kuwata, 51, stands accused of illegally abandoning the body of his father in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture, in mid-April.

A local resident found the body and alerted police on April 25. A few weeks had passed since the father had died.

Officers questioned Kuwata after finding him at a parking lot in Ishikawa Prefecture on May 4. He confessed that he had abandoned the body.

“My father had been ill and died sometime around mid-April,” Kuwata was quoted as saying. “I had no money for a funeral so I abandoned his body.”