Tokyo father charged with coercing his son to kill himself

A Tokyo man already on trial for allegedly physically abusing his teenage stepson has also been charged with coercing the boy to commit suicide.

Akira Murayama, 41, has already appeared in court accused of assaulting 14-year-old Yuito Murayama at their home in Tokyo's Nishi-Tokyo district in July.

The boy's mother found him hanging above his bed in their apartment at about 9am on July 30, local media reported, before calling the emergency services. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital a short while later.

An examination of the boy's body revealed extensive bruising across much of the his torso and the father was arrested on a charge of assault. He claimed that he had been disciplining the child for a year in order to make him "stronger".

Yuito had failed to attend junior high school since June, with police suspecting that the unemployed Murayama confined the child to the apartment to conceal the abuse that he was suffering.

The boy's mother has now told police that she saw Murayama abusing the boy one day before his death and heard him order Yuito to "kill himself within 24 hours." Police believe that he forced the boy to kill himself the following day.