Yoshikazu Okubo, one of the two medical doctors arrested on suspicion of murdering a Kyoto woman with her consent at her apartment building last year, had written in his blog and Twitter account that euthanasia should be tolerated, investigation sources said.
Since more than 1 million yen was deposited by the woman into the bank account of Naoki Yamamoto, the other doctor who was arrested on the same charge, police plan to examine the possibility that the money was received as a reward.
"Anyone who finds difficulty in living life every day because of having contracted an intractable disease could be eased by having a dose of a drug administered or being given an injection," wrote Okubo, 42, on his anonymous blog in May last year. Okubo, who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murdering a Kyoto woman, 51, with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at her own request through the administration of lethal drugs, presented himself on the blog as an experienced ALS doctor.
ALS is a progressive, intractable disease in which patients gradually lose control of most of their muscles as the nerves that move the body develop abnormalities. The progression of the disease varies greatly from person to person, and no fundamental treatment has been found.
In the blog he started at least six years ago, Okubo wrote, "I can somehow understand ALS patients' saying they are in 'living hell.'"
"It is just insensitive for anyone unrelated to the disease to tell the patients to 'live longer in expectation of future [progress in] medicine,'" he also wrote, calling for the necessity of euthanasia.
According to the sources, Okubo, a Sendai resident originally from Hokkaido, worked as a technical official at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry after graduating from the medical department of Hirosaki University in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture.
He quit the job about 10 years ago and opened a respiratory medicine and mental health clinic in Natori, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 2018. His wife is former House of Representatives member Miyo Okubo, 43, the sources said.
Okubo was engaged in home-based care of patients in the terminal phase of the disease. He wrote on the clinic's homepage that he wanted to be a doctor who supports those hoping to concentrate on treatment as well as those who think it is time to discontinue treatment.
Yamamoto, 43, who also was arrested Thursday for the alleged murder of the woman, runs a urology clinic in Tokyo.
According to the clinic's website, the clinic provides home-visit treatment and the service is provided by advance reservation only.
Okubo and Yamamoto coauthored an e-book titled "Atsukai ni Komatta Koreisha wo 'Karasu' Gijutsu" (Technique to "weed out" the troublesome elderly) in 2015.
According to the investigation sources, Okubo and Yamamoto studied at different universities, but came to know each other through a joint study.
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