crime

Child's body found in car of couple caught stealing at supermarket

49 Comments

The body of a young male child was found Thursday in the car of a couple who were caught in the act of stealing at a supermarket in Takahagi City, Ibaraki Prefecture. According to police, Kiyoshi Asanuma, 42, and his wife Mayumi, 37, have admitted to neglecting the child.

The body was found in the back seat of the vehicle, wrapped in a blanket. The body was clothed and it appears as if several weeks had passed since death. Mayumi was quoted by police as saying, "He was just so cute, we couldn't throw him away."

According to police, a security guard caught the pair walking out of the 24-hour supermarket at around 12:30 a.m. with merchandise they hadn't paid for. He followed the couple to their car and confronted them. The two remained inside the vehicle while police were called.

The couple told police they had been living in their car, and they had stolen around 30 items worth a total of 12,000 yen from the supermarket.

© News reports

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49 Comments
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beyond sick. There is a massive rise in this in JPN. Kids to the lower class Japanese are nothing but objects or glorified burden pets. Let me guess.... they still had cigarettes and cellphones too...

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OMG......some animals really do need to be put down. And what the heck is up with the cute kitty chan mentality when it comes to children:

“He was just so cute, we couldn’t throw him away.”

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Just...oh.my.god. I feel ill.

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I cant figure out what is most shocking: a) the neglect resulting in death b) The quote "he was just so cute we couldnt throw him away" or c) they`ve been living in the car with his body???!!!

Oh. My. God.

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He was just so cute, we couldn’t throw him away.”

I don't even know where to begin.

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and here's something even more sickening.. according to sankei news, there was a 2-year-old girl in the car, too... she was healthy and no sign of physical abuse.. but really, putting the little girl in a car with a dead baby IS an abuse.

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this is one sickoo couple

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and they didn't have a place to live, so they were literally living in the car with the girl and the baby's body... :(

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“He was just so cute, we couldn’t throw him away.”

This is the kind of stuff nightmares are made of.

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To poor to buy stuff.. Don't blame the couple

Blame the japanese poltiicians!

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epic fail

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Chilling! Just plain chilling! Welcome to 'safety' Japan where you are more likely to die at the hands of your parents and siblings than those of thugs.

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To poor to buy stuff.. Don't blame the couple Blame the japanese poltiicians!

ivebert, people like you who blame society for people's insane behaviour make me just as sick. My family was poor but my parents still loved me and I could feel it.

Just because you have no money does not mean you treat people like garbage and blame the government when things don't go your way.

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Too poor to do anything with the body. Throwing it out doesn't sound like the right thing to do either. It's not like you can dump the body at the cemetery or church and expect them to pay for the burial. Talk to the prefectural gov, ha, good lot that will do if your living out of a car, no job, if no papers than probably get kicked out of the office. The translation into English sounds pretty insane, but to not want to let go of your child or even pet is understandable. Some wierdo's even go as far to stuff their pets or embalm them. Anyway, I hope they don't make any more kids soon.

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Why is it that humans never cease to unpleasantly surprise me no matter how cynical I get? Time to lower the bar again.

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Plainly insane.

I'm relieved that the 2 year old girl was safe and healthy, but she should be taken away from her parents until they straighten up. If they ever do...

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Let me guess; meth-heads?

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The circumstances surrounding this child's death are certainly horrific, and the parents should bear full reponsibility for what has happened, but I think it's premature and unfair to hop onto our various soapboxes and affix every negative label we can think of to these folks who were living in a car and had to resort to stealing to eat. The truth is we don't know a single thing about what these folk's lives were like up until the point the child's body was discovered.

It's also not a simple matter to claim we would have done anything differently, having never faced similar dire circumstances -- No home, no income, no food. Sure, some of us have been poor in our lives. But I doubt any of us have been as poor as the family in the above article.

Abject poverty . . . and I mean ABJECT poverty of the sort these folks were obviously experiencing for whatever reason can make people do truly desperate things. Wiser people than I would say it's best to reserve judgement until we've walked a mile in the other person's shoes.

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How come they did not asked the city hall for help in cremation and why they did not asked for living welfare? Could it be that the dead died due to unnatural cause? If not apprehended, could be planning to receive the child allowance unscrupulously? If so then, could the life of the surviving child at jeopardy too? No paternal, no maternal instinct whatsoever. Too much material wealth, too poor inner human emotion. Lots of humanoids. Most Japanese must be made to live the life of povery in third world countries like mine for them to appreciate the beauty of life that is Japan!

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Agree with trinklets2.

The local wards tend to be rather helpful. What most people don't know that even foreigners and especially "PR-Holders" can get a lot of support. "PR-Holders" get the full benefits and support as japanese nationals.

Don't want to go into details but after the shite hit me majorly in my life, I and my son got a LOT of help from the local goverment.

Most japanese either don't know that they are elligible or refuse to get the assistance.

Granted won't be a life of luxury but will cover, rent, utilities, food, schooling, etc and also cover 100% FREE medical.

HTH.

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poor is not the issue, even poor people can call the police when their damn child dies!!!!

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“He was just so cute, we couldn’t throw him away.”

~ahh scary ~~

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I think people are taking that "He was so cute" quote out of context. I doubt the mother was cooing over her dead son in the Hello Kitty "ahh, kawaii!" way that little girls do.

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kazan said -

think people are taking that "He was so cute" quote out of context. I doubt the mother was cooing over her dead son in the Hello Kitty "ahh, kawaii!" way that little girls do.

He is right.. the correct translation would be "he was so dear for me that I couldn't get rid of him". the word "kawaii" doesn't always mean "cute".

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Yeah, everything in now day japan is about KAWAII kodomo ga KAWAIKATTA daro ne...

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I agree with Kazan and Fishy. There's a lot to desired when it comes to the loose translation employed in the English version of this news. It seems either engineered to provoke the most sentational response or the work of a very lazy translator.

Debucho,

"poor is not the issue, even poor people can call the police when their damn child dies!!!!"

Do they now? And you speak from what vast body of personal experience involving the death of a child?

You cannot presume to know what a person would or wouldn't do in the event of one's own child dying, particularly if you felt powerless to stop it due to disasterous financial circumstances.

They were living in a car and shoplifting food, for Pete's sake. Not exactly a situation on par with someone living in a 3LDK.

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and i just wanted to mention -- i saw this in a japanese article, that there was a koinobori fish ornament on the front glass of their car. this made me really sad. while i'm upset that their little girl had to see her parents steal and had to stay in the car with her baby brother, the parents somehow got the symbol of "children's day" to wish for the boy's happiness..

if they really loved the kids, they should have seeked help, but that surely wasn't the option for them, or maybe they couldn't come up with the idea of getting help...

i feel very sad for them rather than being upset and angry...

i hope their little girl is properly taken care of now and RIP for the little baby boy.

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Hmm, most parents I know would starve themselves so that their children would get something to eat. These two were certainly healthier than their son so they don't fit my description.

And I don't care HOW dear he was to them, after two weeks in a car the stench from the body had to be horrendous.

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I don't care how much you love your child...you would not let them rot in a car for several weeks. That is not love...that is sick.

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People like these always know how to find each other don't they?

'He was so cute we just couldn't throw him away"

chilling

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I guess 13,000 yen a month didn’t help… Another victims of the mediocre Japanese welfare system. Watch out! Don’t get layoff!!! You can be next! If you do, then you can choose to become statistic in the number of suicides in Japan OR become homeless and get caught by the police stealing food to survive (hopping you won’t die in jail). Begging is not an option; your fellows’ citizens won’t give you shelter or food. Alternatively you can fly your family to Europe and ask for “survival” asylum. Although you’re not an EU citizen, the people over there won’t let you starve to death, or die in the streets. Although the economy situation in the EU is not good at the moment, depending on the EU country, they may give you a change to start over again. Japan is paying a big price - a huge price: human cost - to be the world’s second biggest economy. YOU all are contributing directly and indirectly.

My apologies for the emotion… I’m feeling quite piss off at the moment  and I’m just sharing my thoughts about this depressing news…

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since this is draconian/medieval japan, bet your life these two will get a suspended sentence over for what they stole at the market, NOT over the DEAD CHILD.

but then again this is japan, where a child's life is worth nothing. a dog or cat is worth more!

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**trinklets2 at 11:47 AM JST - 7th May

How come they did not asked the city hall for help in cremation and why they did not asked for living welfare? Could it be that the dead died due to unnatural cause? If not apprehended, could be planning to receive the child allowance unscrupulously? If so then, could the life of the surviving child at jeopardy too? No paternal, no maternal instinct whatsoever. Too much material wealth, too poor inner human emotion. Lots of humanoids. Most Japanese must be made to live the life of povery in third world countries like mine for them to appreciate the beauty of life that is Japan!**

Excellent post!

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“He was just so cute, we couldn’t throw him away.”

Because that's not creepy at all.

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I reminds me of the movie Grave of the Firefly where the older brother was too proud to ask for help. In the end the little sister died.

Children are too precious and the parents should have done everything in their powers to make it through the tough times. Lean on a family member, apply/ask for social services.

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if had no common sense but my wife and the remains of my family were still alive in the car, I would steal food . Heck ! I have run out of Gas , Let's eat.

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I agree very sad news. But where does it say the baby died from starvation? A lot of posters are jumping to conclusions here. Neglect could mean a few things.

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I think LFRagains line of thought is right. This has got to do some mental instabilty triggered by poverty or something tragic. Think about how dreadful it would be to lose your job. Different people react in diferent ways. Most certainly, if the society give the right values to things, things would be a little different. Children come first.

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The body was clothed and it appears as if several weeks had passed since death.

And nobody noticed the smell??

...[W]here does it say the baby died from starvation? A lot of posters are jumping to conclusions here. Neglect could mean a few things.

I agree. This is pretty vague. It's hard to tell if the parents were just down on their luck or genuinely abusive.

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"it appears as if several weeks had passed since his death"

"He was just so cute, we couldn't throw him away"

How cute could he still have been?"

This couple need to be imprisoned for awhile.

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I believe the parent are mentally ill need help . we as a society and the world still don't understand only this incident only will happen to the insane. a perfectly normal person no matter how difficult the situation they will not let that happen, unless they phycological health in question. It is a shame many society still try to avoide dealing in this issue of mental health. many people in the are live in this condition either minor or serious

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How extremely sad this story is. I for one will withhold judgment and simply feel bad for everyone involved. The death of a child can shatter the minds of a parent and there is more than one case of parents not notifying or not wanting to part with the body. Very very very sad.

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Sounds like something out of a Steven King novel. No matter what the cause of death was, leaving the boy's body in the car for weeks is sick.

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Wow people, no compassion here!

They were living in a car, stealing food, probably putting any wages into gas, and they made the hard choice that only one of the children could live. Obviously they felt they were in desperate situation, and maybe they didn't know about the help that is afforded them as a Japanese citizen. Many Japanese people know nothing about their rights, available welfare, or the government in general. If they were both junior high dropouts, they could have a very limited understanding of many things and thus make choices that an educated and aware person would not make.

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If you have children you should get educated. And if you only have a bit of money for food, you should feed your kids first. The only 'justification' that I would accept is if these people are mentally challenged or mentally ill.

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I agree with dolphingirl.

Most japanese don't realise that the Japanese goverment has a pretty good safety network in place.

Experienced it myself(not going into details here but feel free to contact me if interested). Just saying it rescued me and my sons butt and I am NOT japanese.

Not sure why japanese don't take it(might be pride).

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Japan is a very strange country, and the mom saying that their son was to cute to throw away was extremely disturbing!! That is a very strange thing to say, these are two very disturbed people, they dont need help they need to be put in jail and rot. One more thing this is not the only article i read about being cute as a excuse, i remember reading another article about how a man abducted a child out of a supermarket becuase he was "too cute" what is with this country and "Cute" its very weird!!!

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speechless

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What a freaky couple! The woman is obivousley dillusinoal if she thinks that the dead body of a young boy is "cute"

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