A 36-year-old man pleaded guilty to beating his son to death during the opening session of his trial Friday at the Nara District Court.
Tsuyoshi Okada, a dental technician, was arrested last September on suspicion of fatally abusing his son Yushin at their home in Ikoma, Nara Prefecture.
The court heard that on the night of Sept 17, Okada beat Yushin about the head. He called 119 the next day at 6:50 a.m. and said his son wasn’t breathing, Fuji TV reported. The boy was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. Doctors said he had likely died around 4 a.m. and the hospital notified police about a case of possible child abuse.
An autopsy showed that Yushin had suffered a fractured skull.
Okada told the court that he got mad at Yushin because he let their pet rabbit out of the house despite promising not to do so.
At the time of the incident, Yushin's mother was also home but no charges were brought against her.
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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Lindsay
He beat his son to death over a flipping pet rabbit? There’s no doubt in my mind that he had been beating the kid for many years. What a tragic POS he is.
Concerned Citizen
Heartbreaking. Poor boy.
Dango bong
a real man beating a defenseless child...
semperfi
The problem is,Japan's Health a7 Welfare system has not seriously addressed child abuse.
Even when cases are reported- there is very little that happens.
Likely for Yushin, this was not the first time he was beaten.
smithinjapan
Unlike the crowd who Always pipes in "Where was the father?" when a woman murders her child or children, I'm not going to do that, especially since it says she was at home at the time. I'm also not going to blame PPD 9 years after the fact, obviously him being a man (but still equally ridiculous when people do so for women well after). What I am going to ask is why on earth are they not charging the mother for doing absolutely Nothing while being there? It's not like this is irregular, either.
In any case, I hope the guy rots in prison for a life sentence (knowing Japan, it'll be maybe 2 years, although they're a lot more lenient on mothers). What a horrible thing to do, and I feel so sorry for hte poor kid. Perhaps Okada can think about the fact that "Maybe I shouldn't have calmed down before acting" for quite a while behind bars. Far too many people here snap and never think of the conséquences.
sensei258
So, using your logic, if the child deserved being beaten to death for letting the rabbit run off, then the punishment you deserve for taking an innocent life is...
sensei258
@ Osaka_Doug - when you spoke about the responsibility of society in this matter, did you mean in the death of the child, or the punishment of the father?
Disillusioned
He obviously cared more about his pet rabbit than his son.
Another day in Japan, another couple of family murders.
therougou
I'm sure this wasn't the first time the kid got abused. She did nothing about it and is basically an accomplice.
Disciplining with any type of violence is not good. I hate the head-smacking tradition in Japan but the article clearly says he had a fractured skull, so these are two completely different things.
Hiro Ueda
All this over a rabbit? I don't think so... It's been going on for a while... Hope he gets what's coming to him...
sir_bentley28
Because of a rabbit? An 8 year old kid you beat to death for? smh I'm done with all this!
Bugle Boy of Company B
Cracaphat, she was propabaly worried she would get pummeled if she interfered.
Vince Black
Unfortunately he won't get the death penalty, which is what he deserves. Because it's a family matter he may even avoid jail time
Whatsnext
Unfortunately this stuff will keep happening. Hitting kids on the head is a cultural thing here but there should be some education on this. It is not good to discipline children this way because you can permanent ly damage or kill your kids.
Spank em on the butt if you really want to hit your kids. There no important organs at that end. Just fat.
Insane Wayne
That is very true and we will never know why she didn't do it. Most will accuse the father of terrorizing her, but she might have banished him to his room without checking on him.
Of course she could have killed the boy and the father is protecting her. That is possible also.