Two people have died after a fire broke out at the Tokyo residence of Upper House lawmaker Kuniko Inoguchi on Wednesday night.
Her 80-year-old husband, University of Tokyo Professor Emeritus Takashi Inoguchi, and eldest daughter, who is in her 30s, remain unaccounted for.
At approximately 7:10 p.m., an eyewitness called the police to report hearing a fire alarm and smelling something burning from a six-story apartment building in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward.
Two unidentified individuals failed to escape the fire at the lawmaker’s residence, which is located on the sixth floor of the building. One of them was found dead at the scene while the other was pronounced dead after being transported to a hospital.
According to media reports, Inoguchi’s husband and eldest daughter were captured on security camera footage entering the apartment building separately at around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The lawmaker was in Nagatacho for work at the time the fire broke out. Her younger daughter was also at work.
Inoguchi, a former minister in charge of gender equality, lives with her husband, a renowned political scientist, and their two daughters.
According to the fire department, the fire burned 150 square meters of the sixth floor and was almost put out around midnight. About 40 firetrucks were dispatched to extinguish the fire.
Police are working to determine the identities of the two who died in the fire and the cause of the incident.