Japanese woman kept baby's body in locker 'for up to five years'

A Japanese woman has been arrested after allegedly storing the body of her stillborn baby in a coin lockers for years.

Emiri Suzaki, 49, told police that she was not in the right frame of mind when she put the remains of the infant in the locker shortly after giving birth 'four or five years ago'.

She continued paying storage fees for the locker and moved the body to a different locker on 13 September, the Japan Times reports

"I panicked after I did not give birth to a living child and kept the body as I could not dispose of it," she told investigators.

Officers found the decaying corpse wrapped in a plastic bag in baggage locker near Uguisudani Station in Taito Ward, Tokyo on 24 September.

"The suspect... left and abandoned the body of an infant inside the locker, near Uguisudani Station", a Tokyo police spokeswoman told AFP.

Ms Suzaki is said to have decided to turn herself in after she left the home of a male acquaintance following an argument.

She soon realised she had forgotten the locker key and was worried that somebody might discover the baby’s body.

Officials said that although the statute of limitations for the abandonment of a body in Japan was three years, Ms Suzaki was held because her decision to move the remains to a different locker constituted the disposal of the body for a second time.