For years, it was believed that Sogen Kato was the oldest man in Tokyo. The man in the above picture, Shigechiyo Izumi, is 120 years old; Kato was thought to be a relatively spry 111 years old. However, when officials from Tokyo’s Adachi ward went to congratulate him on his 111th birthday, they discovered something shocking: Sogen Kato had been dead for 30 years and his family had been lying to keep getting his pension.
Some 30 years ago, Kato’s family said he had locked himself in his bedroom and, in the words of his family, “confined himself in his room more than 30 years ago and became a living Buddha.” Unlike Buddha, Kato meditated by having his heart stop, his breathing cease, and his body slowly mummify. For six years, the family collected the pension from Kato’s deceased wife, free money amounting to nearly $109,000 in free money, akin to having their dead grandfather rob a bank for them.
Tags: Tokyo, Japan, world’s oldest man, oldest man in Tokyo dead for 30 years, frauds, Sogen Kato, 111-year-old man secretly dead for 30 years, family covers up death of oldest man in Tokyo, pension fraud
