Shocking! Japanese woman keeps her mother's body inside fridge for 10 years

Police in Japan have arrested a woman after the body of her dead mother was discovered in a freezer in her flat.

Yumi Yoshino, 48, said that she found her mother dead and hid the body 10 years ago because she "didn't want to move out" of the Tokyo home they shared, local media reported, citing unnamed police sources.

Yumi Yoshino, 48, was held “on suspicion of abandoning and hiding a female body” found on Wednesday inside the freezer in a Tokyo apartment, police said.

The mother, thought to be aged around 60 at the time of her death, was named on the lease of the apartment in a municipal housing complex, Kyodo News said.

Yoshino had been forced to leave the apartment in mid-January after missing rent payments, the reports said, and a cleaner discovered the body in a freezer hidden in a closet.

An autopsy could not determine the time and cause of woman’s death, the reports said.

The shocking incident has sent shockwaves across the country.

The police has launched an investigation on the case after the body of the mother was recovered.