Japanese man arrested after wife incinerated at zoo

Totori Village in Asahiyama Zoo. (Asahiyama Zoo)

Warning: Graphic content.

TOKYO - Japanese police arrested a man for allegedly incinerating his dead wife at the zoo where he worked, officials and local media said Friday, following the discovery of human remains.

Police arrested Tatsuya Suzuki on Thursday evening on suspicion that he “transported the victim’s body to a tourist facility” in the northern island of Hokkaido and “destroyed it through incineration there,” a local police official told AFP.

The victim, 33-year-old Yui Suzuki, was identified by local media as his wife. Police have not said how she died.

While held in voluntary police questioning, Suzuki said he used his zoo’s incinerator -- meant to dispose of waste and dead animals -- to burn the woman’s body “for a few hours,” local media reported.

His confession sent police scouring the incinerator for her remains, whose partial discovery paved the way for Suzuki’s arrest, local media said.

While alive, the wife once told her relatives that her husband was threatening to “burn you until no trace of you will be left”, public broadcaster NHK said, citing investigative sources.

The gruesome case forced the Asahiyama Zoo, a popular tourist attraction closed since early last month as part of regular maintenance ahead of the summer season, to delay its reopening scheduled for Wednesday.

On Friday, the zoo resumed business, with officials bowing to visitors and apologising for the trouble caused.

“The zoo is in an extremely difficult situation at the moment,” Hirosuke Imazu, mayor of Asahikawa City, which operates the facility, said, according to NHK.

“But we would like to turn your support into our energy, and convey the beautiful lives of our animals,” he said.