Bodies of 2 adults and 2 children found in parked car in Yokohama

So sad. RIP.

Riki-chan & Koshi-chan, you deserved so much better from this world. Gomen!

And that’s in Yokohama, one of the most popular city in Japan. I’m not wanting to know in detail what’s going on in other regions. Probably only the most obvious, bloodiest or children involved cases do it into country wide news.

That's pretty dark, even by Japanese standards. RIP

Yes dark. People are strange.

I cannot fathom how someone could stab their own child.

Why include the children? Government should provide facilities for children whose parents have psychological issues. Make the process easy other than pushing these disturbed parents to take care of them. It should not matter if parents have psychological issue or just plain lazy, just take these innocent children away from these people.

RIP little angels. I hope they did not feel pain for long.

Why killing the kids, if you don’t want the kids give them for adoption.

Japan needs the youth more than any nation and I myself can take one of the kid for adoption.

what a waste for the world.

I can't justify the murder part of this tragedy. There are facilities hosting kids under life-threat.

Chiba Semi-LurkerToday  04:40 pm JST

Why include the children? Government should provide facilities for children whose parents have psychological issues.

noriahojanenToday  05:03 pm JST

There are facilities hosting kids under life-threat.

Easy to say but if nobody knows, or cares, then how is the government or any other agency able to do anything about it? For all we know, in this particular case, the text to a friend may have been the first and only indication that something was amiss, the signs of mental illness are not always obvious. There may be much more to this but we will probably never know.

A mass murder involving slain children. It’s difficult to have empathy for this scenario that repeats itself way too often in Japan.

This is the cost for a stoic and rigidly conformist society. RIP little ones.

I'm guessing it wasn't the 7 or 2 year old, or the mother. Another sad loser who decided to kill his estranged wife and children.

Reading some of comments you wonder if the spouse potential murder was fine, should just have not killed the children which could have been taken in custody. Nothing in the article pinpoint in the direction of double suicide. So the spouse could have taken care of the children as long as none being killed and even better scenario, the suicidal one should have found help so that a long life will come ahead for the 4 of them (together or not).

That is just a tragedy.

Japan is my favorite country in the world , and Japanese my favorite people as well. I am sad when these things happening there.

Do not kill your kids , if you tired of life you can give your kids for adoption.

Sad. Full stop.

Sad and sickening,

My message the any adult who has thoughts abut committing suicide is this:

Go ahead and take your own Miserable life, but you are a coward for murdering the children, there is a very special place in HELL for people like you.

@Thomas Tank

*I cannot fathom how someone could stab their own child.* You never know what is in the mind of someone who takes their own life, because you are not walking in their shoes. This isn't the first or last suicide in Japan by a family so why is everyone so sad? This has a lot to do with culture, yes the father called out to a friend and we only know what the article told us, and that was he was talking about committing suicide. We don't know what else was mentioned in that conversation or perhaps who the father tried to reach out to. Some here may say this is selfish to kill the children but in his or her suicidal mind, they know the system, and how the government and the Japanese society treats parent-less children, and single mothers. Perhaps they figured its better to not cause a problem and with little or no help that was the action they chose. Thats the culture, rich in tradition but one with no resources for a country with high suicidal rates, no one to reach out to, or talk to. Now thats sad!!!

Oh, man. There's help out there.

This seems like a daily occurrence.

How could it be stopped?

Japan and Korea lead the world in suicides. Not a record to be had.

I am more disappointed at many comments and the article itself for the lack of mentioning the possible cause of poverty driving this family into despair. This is a regular occurrence in post-bubble Japan, and Japanese elites refuse to accept this reality.

I used to ask, 'Why on Earth these people are killing their families and themselves?' However, after asking some friends and researching online, I came across this video from NHK (and there are others more on the Internet).

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/ataglance/593/

It is of a heavy heart that these people are in a terrible situation that they think their only resort is a murder-suicide. We are sometimes too quick to judge them, but I think we can't really understand their plight since we have not been in their shoes even just for a day.

May their souls find rest.

There are no words...

Jesus, first world problems.

What could possibly be the reason for doing that? Lost a job?

My God be with all souls involved even the person that felt this was their only option. We will never know what would drive someone to do something so horrific but yes it seems to becoming more and more common around the globe.

"Japan and Korea lead the world in suicides. Not a record to be had."

Not by a long shot.

Japan is around 30th in terms of suicide rate. Lithuania and Russia have much higher suicide rates, just to cite European examples.

In recent years the Japan suicide rate has been only slightly above that for the US.

Korea is higher than Japan but lower than Lithuania and Russia.

You never know what is in the mind of someone who takes their own life, because you are not walking in their shoes.

And I cannot fathom how someone could stab their own child. Both of these statements can be true at the same time.

I've spent a bit of time on the battle field and seen quite a bit of stuff, and reading this makes me want to cry.

It blows my mind to see downvotes on some of these comments. I have 3 children and just looking at them brings me joy. Yes, life is hard and stressful, but there are avenues you can take to get help. It makes me sick to my stomach to see stories like this. Even more so when someone posts a true comment such as what KansaiTen posted and it receives negative reviews. Makes me wonder if those downvoters think killing your children is ok. If you think life is so difficult and you cant make it through it, then fine. If you don't want to seek help, fine. But don't kill your children who haven't done anything wrong. It makes you a coward for not seeking help and a p***y for taking the easy way out. I'm sure Ill be downvoted for this comment, but I don't care. My life hasn't been easy. I've experienced abandonment and abuse, both physical and psychological, and never once have a I thought about killing myself or someone else. My goal is to make my life better and ensure my children never experience what I experienced growing up.

Tango2179, the world needs more people like you.

I was expecting to read a small barbecue was found burnt out in the car but nope a knife! Wow poor little one RIP!

I spent time in Japan and found the people there so amazing and kind, the crime section of Japan Today open my eyes, that everywhere in the world has it's serious problems, with Japan and it's people being no exception.

In either case, to learn of these things, crushes me. :(

"hug"