Police have arrested a 53-year-old man on suspicion of improperly disposing of his father’s remains after he left his ashes in a toilet at Tokyo Station on the Marunouchi subway line.

According to police, Hiroaki Hishijima, a company employee, has admitted to leaving the ashes of his father, who died last September at the age of 83, in a toilet cubicle at the station in November, Fuji TV reported Saturday.

Police said Hishijima lived with his mother after his parents divorced. When his father died, he was cremated and the ward office contacted Hishijima and asked him to come and get the ashes.

Police quoted Hishijima as saying his mother told him not to bring the ashes home because she didn’t want to be bothered with burial costs and procedures. Hishijima said he didn’t know what to do with the ashes, so he left them in the toilet at the subway station.

© Japan Today