crime

7-year-old girl found unconscious at home in Aichi Pref

17 Comments

A 7-year-old girl was found unconscious at home by her mother on Thursday in Mihama, Aichi Prefecture, police said Friday.

According to police, the 48-year-old mother went out shopping at 8 a.m. Thursday, leaving her daughter at home alone. Her father had already left for work. When the mother returned at noon, she found her daughter unconscious in her second-floor bedroom, bleeding from a wound to the head.

The mother called 119 and her daughter was taken to hospital where doctors said she had suffered a fractured skull.

The girl’s mother was quoted by police as saying the front door was unlocked when she returned home. There were so signs of a struggle in the girl’s bedroom, except for a chair which had been knocked over.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

17 Comments
Login to comment

Whether or not this is the truth (hopefully the girl will recover fully and be able to recall the event), I don't see why you would leave a 7 year old home alone. I know hindsight is 20/20 but it's hard to believe that anyone who actually has a 7 year old would think they're responsible enough to be left alone. My friend's daughter is almost 9 and is the most responsible kid I've ever met and I still wouldn't trust her to be left alone. Thankfully neither would her mother shrug

-11 ( +4 / -15 )

Should a seven year old girl be at home unsupervised? Of course she shouldn’t be! That is completely unacceptable and totally irresponsible.

Lets hope the girl can give some information on what happened to her when she wakes.

-10 ( +4 / -14 )

I hope the poor girl recovers to tell the story.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

I see nothing wrong with leaving the 7-year-old home alone for a short time for shopping, but she was gone for 4 hours! That's not good!

I wonder what happened...

6 ( +8 / -2 )

No signs of a struggle... a chair fallen over... maybe the girl was trying to reach something and fell. It could be something that simple. Hope she recovers quickly whatever happened.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

For those that wouldn't leave a 7 year old home alone, I'm glad you weren't my parents.

I'm not really sure what actually happened here but her parents must be worried sick. Hopefully the girl can wake up and say what happened.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Another parent-of-the-year. Good job, mom! Convenience trumps safety once again.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Raw Beer I see nothing wrong with leaving the 7-year-old home alone for a short time

Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with it, until you come home and find her unconscious on the floor.

I was 12 before I was allowed to be home alone. In fact, it is law in Australia. If a parent was to leave a 7 year old at home alone they would be facing child abuse charges and have to go to court to get their kid/s back.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I spent a good bit of time alone at seven years old.

I'd say that many seven year old kids around the world are likely very often left to themselves at seven years old.

I think that the likelihood of something happening to your kid if you leave them alone for a little while at seven years old is probably very low.

That said, it does seem a little young to leave a kid alone for four hours. The action in and of itself is unfortunate, but kids walk to school at that age, and your kid is probably more likely to get hit by a car going to school than to have something happen to them home alone. Yet there is no outrage over kids walking to and from school. In this life, we have certain risk in most everything we do. A mature kid staying home alone at seven years old doesn't seem to me to be a problem in and of itself, it would depend on the kid, the home, the parents, etc.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I was six when I had the house key attached by a shoelace to a belt loop.   I had help getting out of the house in the morning, but I was on my own the rest of the day, walking a round-trip home for lunch and then back home after school.   I guess I was on my own for 2½ hours after school and not 4.   Difficulty:  I wasn't permitted to watch television.  (Years later, I found out that my mother couldn't tell if I did.)  So, I really don't think that this situation is quite as irresponsible as some judge.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I also was 6 when I had a key on a chain around my neck and stayed alone. I had to call my mother as soon as I got home from school and if I wanted to go outside to play. I was not allowed to use knives yet but she left food cut for me. As a single mom with a responsible kid she had no choice. I was home alone a lot longer than 4 hours. In this case the mother was out shopping, why didn’t she bring the child with her? Maybe she was doing her summer homework or watching tv or playing with dolls. But obviously the mother had done it before and there were no troubles. The mother is grieving and we shouldn’t judge her. I hope this girl makes a quick and full recovery!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

FYI. When the mother called the police she said her daughter fell off a chair, but the amount of blood and bruises seem to indicate she was struck several times. When questioned, the neighbors said how much the father loved his daughter, but didn't mention the mother. Of course this might be a coincidence. Perhaps she does these 4 hour shopping sprees often and some bad person caught onto it. Either way, the mother is at least partially responsible and definitely a suspect at this point.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

A seven year old can walk to school alone, of course she can be alone in the house for a couple of hours. We are not talking about in infant here.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Can, but I remember hearing that 7 year olds are mostly likely to get hit by a car.

When my wife left my daughter, then 8, home for a short while she went to a parent-teacher discussion (you'd think the school would have somewhere for the kids to wait..) she opened the door to play outside with her friends despite being told repeatedly not to open the door for anyone. Most kids can't be trusted.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I arrived in the U.S. fresh off the boat at the age of seven and grew in the high-crime area near Fort Apache in the South Bronx. My mother and stepfather both worked and my sister, who was a year and a half older, and I both had keys and were expected to know how to fend for ourselves, buy groceries, iron our clothes and more. I don't see a problem with leaving a young child alone unless you've seen something that gives you pause. This situation is fishy as it could have been an accident caused by the girl herself, an intentional act by an intruder or even one by the mother or another family member.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites