Dead transgender Japanese man had face cut off: reports

Tokyo - A transgender Japanese man whose face had been cut off was found dead by his adopted son at their suburban home, police and media said Friday.

Yoshi Tsuchida, 38, who the Sankei Shimbun reported had undergone gender reassignment surgery to live as a man, appeared to have had his face sliced off with a knife or another sharp instrument, a police spokesman said.

Tsuchida's 28-year-old son, who has not been named, returned to the home they shared in west Tokyo early on Thursday morning, Jiji Press reported.

He fell asleep but later discovered his father, whose faceless head was covered with a plastic bag, the agency said.

"When I woke up my father was bleeding from the face," Jiji reported him as saying, citing police sources.

It is not uncommon in Japan for adults to be adopted.

The mass-market Sankei said the dead man was previously a woman and that his son had also received female hormone treatment.

It added that there was a history of violence between the two men and that police officers had visited their apartment after receiving emergency calls reporting loud voices and people apparently fighting.

Tokyo police would not confirm the Sankei reports, but said Tsuchida was found wrapped in a blanket and was confirmed dead about two hours after his son made an emergency call.

Investigators were examining the case "on suspicion of damaging a dead body", a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman told AFP.