17-year-old youth held for abusing 2-week-old son

He'll never go to jail (though he should) because 1: He's a minor, 2: There'd be no source of income (assuming he works) 3: This is Japan.

"We're gonna let you go. Just please don't break any more of your infant son's limbs please."

I will never understand their logic. Hitting or abuse in any form because a baby won't stop crying will only make them cry more. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out!

Kids with kids!!!

The suspect was quoted by police as saying he got angry after the child wouldn’t stop crying. His wife, who was at home at the time of the assault, is also being questioned by police.

People have serious issues with controlling their anger. So many people that have absolutely no control of their state of mind and let their emotions take control of them. Sad but someone needs to break this 17 year old's arm too so he gets a clue you don't harm people, especially little children and babies.

Not again.

I live up near there. Some utter scum around these parts.

Oh, poor Saitama! I lived there for 4 years, and now I live a 10 minute walk from the border with Tokyo. Like any suburb, me thinks plenty of people moved there from the countryside, and their kids grow up without any roots, community/extended family guidance/pressure. It gets a bad rep, but with 1 or 2 crime stories a week, I guess it`s deserved.

babies with babies, both 17...at least they're still together(for now)

It gets a bad rep, but with 1 or 2 crime stories a week, I guess it`s deserved.

Is that supposed to be sarcasm? The population of Saitama is 7,200,000.

He'll never go to jail (though he should) because 1: He's a minor, 2: There'd be no source of income (assuming he works) 3: This is Japan.

"The juvenile prosecuted in the Criminal Court (in Japan) is subject to the same procedure as an adult. However, some special provisions are applicable to juveniles. For instance, a life sentence shall be imposed on offenders under 18 at the time of offence when the death penalty would be considered appropriate, and imprisonment for 10-15 years may be imposed instead of a life sentence. When imprisonment for less than 3 years would otherwise be imposed, this is reduced to an indeterminate sentence within the scope of an applicable penalty. Additionally juveniles shall serve the sentence of imprisonment separately from adult inmates. Although reduction of a life sentence to imprisonment for 10-15 years for juveniles under 18 is now discretionary, it used to be mandatory before the revision of Juvenile Law in 2000. Under the revised Juvenile Law, juveniles under 16 may be tried in the Criminal Court and sentenced to imprisonment. Juveniles under 16 shall serve their prison sentences in the Juvenile Correction Centres until they reach 16 years of age. In such cases, compulsory labor is not imposed until this time."

First thing, TAKE these two to a hospital & get them BOTH FIXED so they can no longer breed, they clearly arent up to the task of raising a child!

While under the knife, remove the child from them, do not return under ANY circumstances

I only have a one word comment: Contraception!!!

At 2 weeks old, it's lucky that the baby's neck wasn't broken.

"the suspect, who is unemployed"

So, taxpayers have most likely been and will continue paying for these kids' living expenses as well as their baby's. I feel sorry for the baby and the taxpayers. Probably it would be a good idea to put the baby in foster care for now.

How can this ever be. The guy is not even eligible for marriage.

The baby should be removed from their 'care'. But before we cut off body parts or break limbs, let's also remember that the parents are just kids that don't have the maturity to be responsible for themselves let alone another life. They have continued to make bad decisions, having sex, unprotected sex, having a baby, getting married. Doesn't either of these kids have a parent that can be the voice of reason and provide some guidance? I haven't seen a teenager yet who got married and stayed married for very long. Long road ahead in life for all three of them.

Two unemployed children....not a good start for the baby...sigh

You can't vote, drink, smoke, basically look after yourself, but you can look after a child? It's a mad world.

It's a sad situation. There's many issues here that need to be addressed. Obviously guidance on many levels wasn't given starting at contraceptives which the schools and patents should be providing more education on.

Parental counseling or educating the youth who had the mishap of this pregnancy to better prepare them for the hardship that they will be forced to endure. This is the alternative to abortion or adoption that they obviously didn't do or consider.

Many physicians provide the Depo shot to promiscuous kids in North America because they can't be depended on to make sure they use other sources of Birth control. Unfortunately Japanese medical system is making too much money on abortions to allow this contraceptive to be brought in here to Japan. Women physicians that have been pushing for this need to use more examples like this case to help bring it through.

As for the young man that did this, one would like to think that he is feeling remorse for what he's done and putting a child (that's what he is basically) in jail is kind of redundant ....supervised visits with his son until he is cleared through channels ( stable job, educating himself )

Hopefully the grandparents or other siblings intervene and provide this little boy the love and nurturing that's needed right now.

Un-to-ward incident,need impudent punishment.

The sperm-donor in this case, I will not refer or call him a father, because he is not, needs a like lesson. He is more than welcome to come down here and visit me, I would be more than willing to "teach" him how to NOT treat an infant.

How can this ever be. The guy is not even eligible for marriage.

Yes he is. Odds are this was a typical "shotgun" wedding, with the parents signing off on it so the child would not be considered illegitimate.

Yubaru: Male would have to be 18 to be eligible for marriage under Japanese law.

Teens shouldn't be doing adult things if they can't handle the adult responsibility that is required to raise another life in this world. Teen pregnancy is the cause, easy to do, but hard to deal with the consequences. I read in a fun little national geographic article that because of the way the teenage brain functions is that they focus more on the immediate "reward" than the long term impact of the consequences. No reason that if the boy didn't use a condom that the girl didn't have birth control pills. But hey, they're young and still stupid. But this is going to come back to eat them alive forever and their baby boy's arm isn't going to develop as well as it could.

Sad to say but this kid isn't going to reach his first birthday. Too bad the system is too broken to realize they should remove the child from the home. Better to grow up an orphan than in that situation.

The Japanese system of defining youths,children and adults is very confusing. If someone under 21 is not married and still lives t home, they are considered teenagers and not held accountable very much fo their actions and will not have their names released in the media. But When they get married with the parents permission, they are considered adults. What will be the case for prosecution against the 17 year old on this case of assault on a minor against a minor? There is intent to cause harm and it was not an accident? The mother is just as at fault to the same degree because she was an active witness that seemed to do nothing to stop the actions of her "mature husband".

This guy is 17. Still a child himself. But when two people of their age have sexual intercourse and the result is a baby they don't have the maturity to handle it yet. Plain and simple.

Yubaru: Male would have to be 18 to be eligible for marriage under Japanese law.

Read the second half of what I wrote.

Yubaru: That wasn't really my point and the fault is probably on me lacking clarity in what I wrote in the first place. Am only raising criticism over a guy who is not even eligible for marriage being allowed to raise a kid being allowed to do whatever he wants with the kid to allow things to go this far. To elaborate further my criticism is actually towards the parents of the young couple while also aware that things can only be judged at this point based on speculation in lack of details on what the actual status of things were with this family, which we should come to know soon.

Oh Saitama, what a mess! Poor little baby!

But before we cut off body parts or break limbs, let's also remember that the parents are just kids that don't have the maturity to be responsible for themselves let alone another life

Danako,

I stand by my "FIX THEM" idea, seriously that aught to be the minimum! When I was 8yrs old I was taking care of my baby sister helping mom, feeding washing, daiper changing(she hates to hear about that now haha), all kinds of stuff!

By the time I was 17 I have a bunch of neighbourhood families I babysat for kids 3-4 & older I had to & DID all the things parents do with regards to feeding, cleaning up, playing, getting them in bed etc

These 2 in the article while young are CLEARLY old enough to know better, the baby only a couple weeks old & violence...............FIX'EM I say.

The big question is, once the baby is discharged from the hospital, whom will he be discharged to? My guess is the same parents who sent him to the hospital to begin with. The system in Japan is garbage, and the proof is in the pudding.

Readers, no more grisly suggestions for punishment please.

Unfit parent and social being.

@smithinjapan The BIG question is: Why does an American kill more than 20 children in a school? Why does these massacres happening all the time? You are the expert, so what r u dude talking about??