Police in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, have arrested a 33-year-old woman on suspicion of killing her two sons, aged 4 and 2, at their home earlier this month.
According to police, Keiko Izawa has admitted strangling her 4-year-old son Yusei and suffocating her 2-year-old son Akira on Jan 7, Kyodo News reported. She then attempted to commit suicide by stabbing herself in the abdomen with a kitchen knife.
Police said Izawa left a suicide note addressed to her husband who found his wife lying next to the bodies of their two sons when he returned home from work on the night of Jan 7. Police said Izawa wrote in the note about her anxiety over raising her two children and an apology.
The two children were declared dead at the scene, while Izawa was taken to hospital. She was arrested on Wednesday after being discharged from hospital.
Police quoted Izawa as saying she wanted to die with her children.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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Spitfire
Man,
Japan is so third world at times.
Welfare is so frowned upon.
shogun36
I can guarantee you, those kids didn't want any of that.
Rest well, young ones.
DanteKH
As hard as life can be, no mother should kill her own children.
Those kind of news are happening on monthly basis in Japan sadly...
This is what happens when there is no bonding between parants and children, no love, no genuine affection, both home and in public.
Here people are afraid and ashamed of Love, like it's an abomination.
Futaro Gamagori
@Spitfire
Are you saying these things don't happen in 1st world countries?
Gaijinjland
@Spitfire
Umm you ever been to a 3rd world country? Children are valuable commodities over there and a guarantee that the parents will be taken care of in old age. In 3rd world countries unwanted are at worst sold through black market under the table adoptions. No… Japan has a distinctly first world problem.
Disillusioned
Just kill yourself! The kids don't deserve to die;
falseflagsteve
Oh no, not again.
what kind of demonic forces turned her mind to the dark side and made her do such a wicked thing.
We need better social services here, it’s just not good enough you see.
smithinjapan
And another! How many family murders today alone??
Anyway, I truly wish that if these people are so miserable they need to exit this world that they would leave others alone, especially small children who probably loved and trusted her with all their hearts -- maybe living long enough to scream "WHY?" as their mother murdered them.
Glad she survived. Hope she is thrown in prison for life and photos of her darling babies put where she cannot tear them down, and which are always looking at her with loving eyes and cute little smiles. Let her think about the fact that SHE wanted to die and her kids did not, while she lived and they died, at her hands, and hers alone. Remind her of it every day. Play recordings of the kids for her once in a while. But knowing Japan and the justice system in such cases, she'll be out in a couple of years if she even sees a cell at all.
kaimycahl
After reading this article its obvious Izawa needed some help, most people here don't know what its like to be in someone else's shoes especially when they feel they have no support. Most Japanese do not want to get others involved in their problems and those that do say they get little or no support at all. Some posters wrote what kind of mother would do such a thing, she didn't love her kids etc... based on what the article said she left a suicide note to her husband we don't know what was in the note but no one knows what her struggles were everyone have different coping mechanisms. Perhaps the stress or loneliness and the responsibility of parenting took its toll, killing her children doesn't mean she didn't love them, she tried to also kill herself to avoid leaving the burden on her husband. Sad all around because she didn't complete what she had hoped to do. Now she has to live with additional depression. What she needed was helped that perhaps could have been communicated to her husband but working so much was ignored.
Police said Izawa left a suicide note addressed to her husband who found his wife lying next to the bodies of their two sons when he returned home from work on the night of Jan 7. Police said Izawa wrote in the note about her anxiety over raising her two children and an apology.
Fighto!
Every article these days - from parents killing innocent children, to mass murderers burning 36 people alive - some people are looking to blame bad upbringings, society, social services, the government, corporations, or even the victims themselves.
I've even seen people suggest all murderers should be considered insane and spared any jail time.
If a person is of sane mind and chooses to murder, they are a killer and the responsibility is on them. Simple as that. This child-killer woman should never see even one day of freedom again.
Rest in Peace to the poor little kids. You deserved so much better.
Moonraker
Well, there you go again, Fighto. You assume we all have free will. Is it supportable? We have to assume it in order to punish. And punishment is the desperate fallback we have now to help us believe we are holding our putrid societies together. I think it is sad beyond measure that she killed her innocent children but that nuance will be lost on the flog 'em and hang 'em brigade. We should be aiming for societies where this never happens but we are miles from that because we are all living in quiet desperation. The loveless flog 'em and hang 'ems help keep us there.