The Baby Killers Thread

[InTheColdLightOfDay]

I think this thread could possibly be the most depressing thing on the internet.

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

[Mogura]

Seems like someone's fed up and doing something about it...

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crim ... hild-abuse

Woman calls for new crime category to stem child abuse
Sunday 08th August, 03:52 PM JST

OSAKA —
A 34-year-old woman in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, is collecting signatures to call for the creation of a new crime category to stem the soaring number of child abuse cases in Japan—abuse resulting in death or injury.

After being frustrated that many parents, whose abuse led to the death of their children, have still evaded murder charges due to investigators’ recognition that they lacked murderous intent, Hiroko Narita, a company employee, said she hopes her campaign will help raise public awareness that child abuse is a felony.

She and her supporters, mainly mothers of young children, have so far collected signatures in Kanagawa and Osaka prefectures and on the Internet from more than 60,000 people, and aim to raise the figure to more than 200,000.

Narita came up with the idea of creating a new crime category to specifically punish the act of child abuse after she learned about the case of 9-year-old Seika Matsumoto of Osaka’s Nishiyodogawa Ward. Matsumoto died in April 2009 after her mother and her common-law husband allegedly used harsh physical violence on her and neglected to provide her with sufficient food.

The two claimed that their act was intended to be discipline. While the crime of murder carries the maximum penalty of the death sentence, they were charged with ‘‘negligence as guardians resulting in death,’’ a crime that can be punished with an imprisonment of up to 20 years, with the mother later sentenced by the court to eight years and six months in prison and the man 12 years in prison.

‘‘Abuse by parents, who are supposed to love and care for their children, can thoroughly damage the children’s bodies and minds,’’ said Narita.

She said she herself was victimized by her mother’s abusive behaviors when she was in elementary school. Her mother would become angry at small things she did, and drag her around in a room of their house by pulling her hair. One snowy night, Narita had to lie down on a bench in a park after her mother locked her out of the house.

Narita still remembers the pain of feeling, ‘‘I am an unwanted child.’‘

But she said harsher punishments alone are not an answer for reducing child abuse cases, as she believes the distribution of pamphlets bearing contact numbers for reporting suspected cases is important, as well as making it easier for authorities to forcibly enter houses where parents are suspected to be abusing their children.

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, child abuse cases handled by consultation offices in Japan hit a record 44,210 in fiscal 2009, rising for 19 straight years since statistics were first compiled in fiscal 1990.

But there was only one case in which counselors made a compulsory visit to a household, where child abuse was suspected after the family had rejected the investigation, during the reporting year that ended in March.

In a recent high-profile case in Osaka’s Nishi Ward in which two toddlers were found dead in an apartment after their mother abandoned them, a resident reported to counselors three times about the children’s crying but the counselors did not attempt to enter the apartment.

‘‘I hope our activities will lead to rising awareness about the issue and the creation of a better safety net protecting children,’’ Narita said.

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

I'd sign.

[RandyDickson]

I'd sign too.

My Japanese is abysmal...would anyone be able to find the link for the internet petition?

[InTheColdLightOfDay]

You can find the petition here:

http://www.shomei.tv/project-1084.html

[RandyDickson]

InTheColdLightOfDay- thankyou very much. I appreciate you finding it, and posting it here.

edited to add: using the google translate function I was able to register and sign her petition. Thanks again

[kunikun]

I've been crying for the little babies left to starve. And even though a large part of me wants to strangle her the Mother too. When she gets the psychiatric help that she needs she may well one day realise and understand what she has done and I cant think of a worse punishment as a Mother than having to live with that for the rest of your sorry, hated, imprisoned life.

My two are similar in age so it just breaks my heart to think of them and the desperation. So angry at the society that ignored the noise and the child protective services for not doing more -but understand also that there are civil liberties to protect and hell, there have probably been times when my neighbors have wondered what I was doing to my kids.

No mention of the sperm donor in this case and why his ex wife was left to prositution to make ends meet - let me guess, he skipped out and doesnt pay any child support. Or he's supposed to but the system wont follow it up. Or he's broke. Lots of angry vitriol towards the Mother and rightly so, but this happened not cos shes a young mother but because shes mentally disturbed and theres no support for women in her position. Most of the other nutjobs in this thread are older women and men.

I'd like to see aka-chan posts available at ALL hospitals and police stations. And more people risking the wa to check that people are okay.

[Tall Tall Tree]

Surprisingly proactive move on that lady's part. Good on her.

I was surprised to hear that hese negligent parents are not hit up on any sort of murder charge. Does Japan have something analogous to manslaughter?

[InTheColdLightOfDay]

TTT, you realise that, because of the lack of continuity, it kind of looks like you're praising the woman that kunikun is talking about...

[Mogura]

The surprising part of this sad story is in boldface...

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crim ... n-wakayama

Man arrested for beating 5-year-old daughter in Wakayama
Tuesday 10th August, 10:28 AM JST

WAKAYAMA —
Police arrested a 29-year-old man on Monday on suspicion of child abuse after receiving a report from his five-year-old daughter’s kindergarten in Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture, that the girl had come to school with injuries to her face.

Masataka Kobatake is suspected of using his fists to hit the girl on Sunday afternoon, leaving bruises and other injuries on her face. Kobatake was quoted by police as saying that he was just trying to discipline the girl.

Authorities say that the local child welfare office had been receiving calls about Kobatake from relatives since 2008.

[RandyDickson]

From the article mogs posted:

Authorities say that the local child welfare office had been receiving calls about Kobatake from relatives since 2008

What a useless group of morons.
So, that poor child has had to endure abuse for 2+ years, because they're too cowardly to intervene?
It would seem that they're more vigilant following up on owed taxes. Even NHK fee collectors follow up more fiercely.

I wish they'd enact more laws to protect children in this country. This thread is testament to the fact that they're currently insufficient.

[Mogura]

I wish they'd enact more laws to protect children in this country. This thread is testament to the fact that they're currently insufficient.

They don't need to enact more laws... they just need to enforce the ones they've already got... and stop giving these worthless sacks of shit suspended sentences...

[kunikun]

One word Randy Dickson - PATRIARCHY

Same thing happens at home. You get 5years - released after 2 for raping a kid but you'll get double that for crimes against white man and his money.
Abusive men get custody visits with their children - because its their sperm and theyre entitled!
Not saying it NEVER cuts the other way - but its amazing to me how crimes against women and children are given such low consideration.

[Shawn]

From the Globe and Mail. It's short, so here it is in its entirety.

Japanese student charged after baby’s body found in Victoria-area house

A Japanese woman has been charged after a dead baby, believed to be hers, was found in a plastic bag at a house in a Victoria suburb, police said.

Narumi Bito, 20, who is studying in Canada, was charged with failing to make provisions to properly deliver the child, which is believed to have died shortly after birth.

So far, the cause of the child's death is unknown and police are waiting on an autopsy report to get a clearer idea of what happened.

“It could be anywhere from [a situation where] there's no crime here, to a serious offence,” said Saanich Police Sergeant Dean Jantzen.

Police were called Monday at 9:30 a.m. to a boarding house overlooking a lake on Saanich Road in a quiet residential neighbourhood by someone at the residence who was concerned for the well-being of Ms. Bito, who rents a room there.

At the scene, police discovered the baby's body in a plastic bag. They said it had been there since Sept. 17.

None of the other residents of the house are considered suspects in the investigation and they have all been co-operating with detectives, Sgt. Jantzen said.

Police and the coroner are continuing their investigation.

[imahustlababy]

I'd second the people on this thread who pointed out that it's hardly a Japanese problem.

Australia has a lot of welfare support for families (esp low income ones), single mothers are accepted in Oz, the UK, NZ and European countries as being equal in status to married ones, defacto families have been recognised for some time now as being equal in legal status to married ones etc etc. The pill's been around since the 60s, widely used since the 70s, now normal for Oz teenagers to take, abortion has been legalised for some time.

Japan's like Korea in that an enduring problem for women is that none of the above are normal in those countries. This lack of support for women and alternatives to marriage does result in baby/child murder and abuse.

Yet there's just a long list of horrific child murders and abuse in all the progressive countries. Australia which is about the same as the UK for welfare generosity and has a much better climate,more open spaces, more services etc than the UK has seen some vile cases in the recent past. I think it was last year a girl was starved to death in her home. None of the Aussie neighbours thought of alerting the welfare dept when it was obvious the kid wasn't being seen.

In Australia there have been a relatively high number of murders of kids like toddlers by the man in a defacto relationship with a woman. That's not demonising defacto relationships but there's no doubt in my mind that having different kids by different men when you are struggling financially or emotionally and your partner doesn't seem to care about kids that are not his is a situation that has a lot of potential for this kind of abuse/murder.

Aussie feminists of the hardnosed variety who have made a lot of public and welfare policy since the late 70s have stereotyped married men as being potentially dangerous but ask any policeman or policewoman who works with abuse/murder cases of children in Australia (my brother's married to a policewoman who deals with these cases) and they will tell you that defacto partners are more likely to do that with their partner's kids by another man.

That's not to say this is confined to defacto partners who are men but they certainly for the past 20 years or so in Australia have the worst track record in this kind of crime. These crimes are not confined to people dependent on welfare but they do occur with higher frequency among people who don't have much education, have multiple children by different partners, or have alcohol-drug dependency.

The UK seems to have the same problems. Remember Baby P a couple of years back? Systematically abused by his natural mother, her boyfriend who was not his father, and a paedophile 'friend' who lived with them. That kid had no chance whatsoever. The welfare dept had a lot of blamed heaped on them as they had visited that mother and she put jam all over her kid's cheeks to conceal bruises. Personally I think that case worker was absolutely negligent and I'm outraged they didn't see the obvious. But like in the case of the Aussie kid starved to death with neighbours all around, Baby P's neighbours could have done more to report what they heard and saw happening but they didn't.

The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph ran a great number of stories on that heartbreaking case. I remember one headline copying the advertisement for the movie 'Alien': "In (suburb's name) nobody can hear you scream". This kind of sick dysfunction happens in countries where people do get far more support including welfare for them and their kids so why be surprised when it happens in countries where people don't?

[Mogura]

A new twist on an old problem. Sad stuff indeed...

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crim ... dy-in-park

Woman, father held on suspicion of burning baby's body in park
Crime Jan. 20, 2012 - 03:46PM JST

FUKUI —
Police in Fukui on Friday arrested a 23-year-old woman and her 51-year-old father on suspicion of burning the body of her dead newborn son in a park in December.

According to police, the infant’s mother, identified as Momoko Miyanaga, and her father, Yoshihiro Miyanaga, have admitted to the charges.

Momoko was quoted by police as saying that she gave birth at her home in November 2010. She said the child died immediately and that she hid the body for nearly a year in her room. After she told her her father in December 2011, he burned the body in a park and brought the bones back home, according to Jiji Press.

Police on Friday found bones believed to be the remains of the infant. The family of six lived in a big two-story house, local media reported.

[SamhainP8]

This is very old news but still insightful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyuki_Ishikawa

"The Shinuku Ward Office ignored their actions".

"The Japanese government was aware of this crisis, but did nothing".

[steki47]

This is very old news but still insightful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyuki_Ishikawa

Very old news, but quite interesting!

This incident is regarded as the principal reason the Japanese Government began to consider the legalisation of abortion in Japan.[9][10] One of the reasons this incident was thought to have occurred was as the result of an increase in the number of unwanted infants born in Japan. On July 13, 1948, the Eugenic Protection Law (now the Mother's Body Protection Law) and a national examination system for midwives was established. On June 24, 1949, abortion for economic reasons was legalised under the Eugenic Protection Law in Japan.

American women would sometimes visit Japan for medical tourism,namely, to get an abortion.

[Mogura]

Only 2 years for what appears to be murder? Fucking hell...

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crim ... y-in-woods

Two-year sentence sought for woman who dumped baby daughter's body in woods
Crime Apr. 20, 2012 - 07:00AM JST

OITA —
The prosecution in the case of a woman who dumped the body of her 2-year-old daughter on Thursday called for a two-year sentence.

Yuko Emoto, 35, was arrested in February for abandoning a corpse after the partial remains of her her 2-year-old daughter, Kotone, were found in the woods near her house in Hijimachi, Oita Prefecture, last September.

The case received a lot of publicity when Emoto claimed that Kotone had been abducted from a parked car outside a supermarket. Emoto told police she had left her daughter in the child seat in back of her car while she went into the Marushoku Kawasaki supermarket. She said she had been gone about five minutes, and when she returned to the car, her daughter was missing.

Police launched a massive search for the girl, but to no avail.

Emoto was arrested after she confessed that the abduction story had been a lie and that she had actually buried the girl’s body in the mountains.

After recommending a two-year-sentence, the prosecutor said Emoto’s actions were rash and inconsiderate, and that she had had caused a lot of problems for a lot of people, Fuji TV reported. Counsel for the defense, appealing for a suspended sentence, responded that Emoto did not deny the charges, but she has faced up to what she has done and has sincerely apologized for her actions.

Emoto is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29.