Police said Tuesday that a couple in Osaka has been arrested for fraudulently claiming 6 years' worth of child allowance payments for their child who died shortly after birth.
The crime was reportedly discovered when a local elementary school, which had records of the girl's birth, invited her to attend a pre-enrollment physical check and orientation meeting. According to TBS, the girl's mother told the school that her daughter had died some time before, but the school reported the matter to police.
Police said the couple -- a 53-year-old man and his 35-year-old wife -- had a daughter in May of 2006. The child was in good health when she left the hospital six days afetr her birth. The parents filed her birth certificate two days later and applied for a child care allowance.
After the couple were arrested earlier this month on a charge of fraudulently receiving child welfare payments, they told police their daughter died within a week, TBS reported. Police quoted the couple as saying that they decided to continue to claim welfare payments. Over the six years, they received 934,000 yen in child care allowance payments, police said.
The couple also told investigators they threw the child's body into the sea without registering her death and continued to lead authorities to believe she was alive. Media reported that social workers reportedly visited the family eight times, and each time, the girl's father claimed she was visiting her grandparents with her mother and was in good health.
Police say they are looking into the circumstances surrounding the girl's death.
© Japan Today
32 Comments
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kimuzukashiiiii
To be honest.. the fact they were claiming welfare payments for 6 years is not the thing that shocks me about this story.
And the social workers need to have more rights and help from the police, making it legal and easy for them to see a child who needs their help.
RIP poor little girl.
Ewan Huzarmy
I seem to remember a similar story from last year.
mitoguitarman
Murder?
Ms. Alexander
As much of a pain it may be, I think the cityhall should require to bring their kids when registering/re-registering for child care allowance. Too many people abuse the system!
Mirai Hayashi
This just wreaks of murder....what a disgusting pair!
marcels
All for a lousy ten grand!!! RIP littlle one ,the ones you trusted most ,threw you out sea .as if you were some kind of bait..How about throwing the parents out to sea...
Saulo Akazawa
This is very sad. I hope they are properly punished!
papigiulio
This is sadly enough only the tip of the iceberg im afraid.
ChibaChick
Agree Marie. I dont know if I am more shocked by the behaviour of the "parents" (I use that word in it`s loosest sense) of the social workers that came EIGHT times, ticked the box on their form, and went away. This llittle one was born the same month and year as my little boy. It makes me sick to my stomach to imagine while I was in hospital cradling my newborn, someone else was sitting just like me in another hospital plotting this awful thing. That is just not human.
ChibaChick
Mirai - not Marie. Duh! Not had coffee yet! Sorry!
FPSRussia
This is more common than you think. Not only in this fieldmbutmalso people who died in 3.11 are being used even in death. Companies who have subscription contractions are still withdrawing money from the bank.
I also know a woman who wanted to claim child allowance under false pretenses. It's not difficult to defraud the government here.
FightingViking
...and then there are those who, as a single parent (albeit a foreigner but whose child is Japanese) not knowing anything about eventually being able to claim a "child care allowance", never did...
Gerard van Schip
Who cares about the money? Child leaves hospital in good health, dies a week later and is thrown into the sea? Who knows what parents like that are capable off doing to their child?
I would like to see a murder investigation but with no body and 6 years passed that might be difficult.
wanderlust
Just like claiming allowances for dead pensioners...
ChibaChick
This is so true. The system is still very paper based and a lot seems to be based on trust (like requiring family to let the wad office know when someone dies. Not requiring social workers to actually SEE the person they are checking up on. Sheesh. It even sounds ridiculous when I type it!)
Madhu
Poor little girl RIP
6 years is too long to identify the the case, Japan is most advanced country and it is dam easy to identify these kind os incidents by linking the Health Insurance Card and its usage & making regular health check ups mandatory.
In doubt cases, city office personal make a visit with prior intimation that they should present the kids when they visit. If failed to do so seek the police permission.
So sad to hear such incident on infants and KIDS.
nath
I often wonder what is going through these peoples minds. They are obviously despicable human beings at the least, and quite possibly murderers.
ChibaChick
An excellent suggestion. And a good example of what SHOULD happen but DOESNT because those two computer systems dont talk to each other.
Surf O'Holic
Any time free money is to be had from a government program, people will find ways to work the system and maximize their gain at the expense of others.
This couple very well may have either intentionally killed the child or done something else like sell or give up for secret adoption. Despicable.
Mirai Hayashi
The sad part is that, even if they did kill their daughter, unless they admit it, they can't be charged for the crime. Chances of recovering the body us nil, and without a body, there is no evidence. At worse, these two will probably get 1 to 2 years for disposal of a body and fraud.
Disillusioned
So, we all know this scenario very well. One of them killed the kid, they then conspired to hide the death and dump the body to hide the murder. The family payments were just a bonus for these scumbags. How many times a year (month) does this this scenario unfold in Japan? There is a very cold and sick underbelly within Japanese society. Way too often I read stories about babies being tossed in the rubbish, abandoned on streets or toilets, mothers hiding births, parents conspiring to hide the death of an infant, the list just goes on and on. It makes me sick to my stomach to read these kinds of articles with such regularity and callousness. They treat their pets better!
wontond
They probably killed the poor kid, but won't get charged with it due to lack of evidence.
Laguna
Methinks bilking the government out of a few years of child allowance is the least of their problems at the moment.
Good on the school for not letting this slide.
hobart_mark
Do such barbaric animals exist on our planet?
Cos
I wouldn't even believe the story about baby's death. It's not more likely to see her again alive than the English Madeline, of course. But it can be that the 2 monsters don't even remember where and how she ended up. The police should investigate the case like missing person, abuse, neglect, torture, abduction, child porn, human traffic, murder, don't bar any possibility.
Maybe. But those in this case needed being kicked in their bottom, no ?
The police can't guess if they don't even report to them. The school was able to report, so social services could have done it before.
EIGHT TIMES plus the health visits in SIX YEARS. Close the social service, they are totally useless, that's a loss of public money.
bluesea67
I have two children and have never been visited by a social worker. My feeling is that these people were already on the Radar for some other reason. Nearly 20 years difference between the couple is another red flag. Osaka social workers have an appalling record in regards to this sort of thing.
FightingViking
I can't imagine any mother wanting to kill her child and then, calmly and callously, collect welfare payments...
Bootsy
Agree 100%. Plus continuing the fraud for 6 years. Awful, awful awful story.
cramp
they killed her...plain and simple
blendover
You would have thought that they would have spent the six years cooking up some sort of a plan to deal with the inevitable questions that would come up when school started. How could they have imagined that they could keep this up indefinitely? Obviously pretty socially alienated low intelligence types with mental issues.
Fadamor
We don't know if there's a lack of evidence. Maybe six years ago the body of an infant was washed up on the shore and police were unable to identify the body. If so, now they have a good idea who it might have been.
Lowly
What were they thinking? How could they imagine they wouldn't be caught at some point? And the longer it goes on the worse it looks...
I hope it was natural causes.
Stupid people.