crime

Vigilance could have prevented 3-year-old child's death by starvation: expert

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There seems to be many cases where the intervention of child welfare services has been inadequate and resulted in the death of children at the hands of their parents. I understand it is a delicate situation and their goal is to keep families together, but they really need to get tough on these people and take the kids away at the first sign of abuse. The life of a child in welfare hostels in Japan is horrid, but it’s still better than being killed by your parent/s. Fostering is not popular in Japan and there has been many cases of fostered children being abused. Japan is not all sushi and cherry blossoms. There is a dark underbelly of child abuse that is not appropriately addressed by authorities.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

yes vigilance could help many but vigilance also could get you in trouble as I have read so many times in JT comments. I myself just last month stopped a husband from beating his wife on the street in front of my place. All I did was took his hand from choking her and just held his hand in a position so he couldn’t move. (Aikido training) the neighbors took her away to safety. End result, I was questioned for almost an hour, my name, phone number, address, company was all taken down. The police main question was why did I physically restrain him? (BTW no injuries to him) Even though 5 of my neighbors fended for me and explained the situation, none of their info was taken. The husband who punched and choked his wife was let go to go home. Thanks to the guy across the street who has a security camera came out, showed the police and ended the questioning.

Police need to show more appreciation to those who help those in need of help. I for one will continue to help those in need.

22 ( +22 / -0 )

Since1981, we need more like you. Good work

12 ( +12 / -0 )

"Vigilance" easily said AFTER the fact! No one wants to ever get involved, and all the "woulda, coulda. shoulda's" in the world is not going to change a system that has no idea about "prevention"

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Police need to show more appreciation to those who help those in need of help. I for one will continue to help those in need.

Quite so! (Well done by the way!) The police here probably were like, "Why didnt you call us to handle it instead of you stepping in?" Then they make YOU out to feel like you are the perpetrator of a crime for possibly saving someone's life.

You are lucky, in a manner of speaking, as if he, the arsehole husband here, decided to make a complaint against you for your intervention, the cops would have taken you in and charged you!

12 ( +12 / -0 )

The ward office says it called several times and made an effort to establish contact but couldn't reach the mother. This was the biggest failing," 

I am not sure what more he expects in response to simply missing an appointment, which is all the ward office would have had to go on. Are they supposed to hire bounty hunters to track moms down when they miss appointments or something?

I have taken my kids to those check ups, you are in a facility with dozens of crying kids with the ward employees desperately trying to maintain order and get everyone through. They clearly don’t have the resources to hunt people who miss one.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

What a horrible way to die, and quite frankly, killed.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Isn’t Japan by and large a safe and functioning place where rules abound?

However the idea of the state not being vigilant is not a solution to this tragic case.

Is it not a question of commonsense, empathy and foresight or lack thereof?

Like people leaving their pets or kids in cars under the sun or parents allowing toddlers to cross roads without holding their hands.Stopping suddenly on busy streets and running down crowded escalators.

There are many examples.

The ability to foresee seems to be lacking in many types of behavior here,for some reason.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

kurisupisu:

The ability to foresee seems to be lacking in many types of behavior here,for some reason.

The idea of preventing crime before it happens was the theme in the Spielberg move "Minority Report".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MinorityReport(film)

To believe you can foresee a crime is to believe determinism, which means to deny human freewill.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The ability to foresee seems to be lacking in many types of behavior here,for some reason.

Also the inability to change when the problems are pointed out to them. There never seem to be "lessons learned" exercises in Japan with an aim to prevent future instances going forward.

In this case, it does seem a bit hard - she missed one appointment, which alone hardly suggests massive abuse. There are things that might have raised the risk profile - young mother, known victim of abuse, with irregular employment etc and this could have helped identify a child at risk. This would mean more state tracking of people, which is not great.

Some of the case reviews in tghe UK into child deaths showed that when all of the evidence was put together in child abuse cases, there was often a lot of evidence to show a child was at risk. However, different agencies were not talking together properly, such as the police, the doctor and the school. Once the file was considered in aggregate, it was obvious that the child was at risk..

5 ( +5 / -0 )

It took a so-called "expert" to come to this conclusion. Please, please lock this woman up for life. Let's see if prison is a "burden" and how she learns she needs to cope. It is sickening.

Equally as sickening is the constant scramble by neighbors to report how much they worried and loved a child and how great the kid was, etc., but did they call the police ever or try to check in on the child? Nope. But after a death they sure do love talking about how worried they were or how much they loved the kid. It is also a societal failure.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Shame on the neighbors too. As if they didn’t hear anything.

The only solution is the death penalty, if nothing else it might scare others into doing the right thing. This animal must die

1 ( +3 / -2 )

With a locked door and drawn blinds, and no absolute proof, what do the authorities do, break the door down? Huge dilemma for them, stressed and stretched as they are.

This little angel left her body. The mother probably never planned to get pregnant anyway.

Some deeper wisdom here in the article, quote: *If, as the adage goes, it takes a village to raise a child, Noa appeared to lack the essential community support to grow in a safe and healthy environment. Ogi says the biggest problem was Noa's isolation from society...*

Unable to find the original article, I checked out the saying/proverb, and it seems to come from Nigeria. But I think village life in Japan was traditionally like that, with the whole village generally being behind every child. In this case anyway it surely would have helped.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

You can see the blank faceless apartment in this video.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/43e78c019f96ab41296d446bcaa2eaba12f74cf9

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Kakehashi, who worked at a Japanese-style "izakaya" pub, often left Noa home alone so that she could frequent pachinko parlors and bars with friends, and visited Kagoshima on her own for three days in May as well, the sources said.

Who are these sources? If I recall from a previous article, one was a friend of the mother. These people have no guilt in admitting that they knew a child was being abused, and did nothing about it. They should be locked up along with the mother.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Since 1981,

Thanks for sharing and you did a good job.

However,Japanese cops feel embarrassed that you did their job.

One of my friends was going shopping and there was a Japanese in front of him crossing a wide intersection and a toddler far behind the man,out of the corner,a speeding car appeared and almost hit the toddler had my friend not rushed and saved the toddler.

He lifted up the toddler and took it to it's dad who was already across the street.Naturally out of emotion,my friend was angry and told the dad that it was wrong to leave or rather neglect a toddler behind while crossing roads.But upon the dad seeing that my friend was a foreigner,he immediately called the cops who showed up shortly and he accused my friend for assault.

My friend was taken to the station and locked up for assault.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Vince BlackToday  10:02 am JST

Shame on the neighbors too. As if they didn’t hear anything.

Not to mention the biological father. It's amazing how often there's virtually no mention of the fathers in stories like these.

The only solution is the death penalty, if nothing else it might scare others into doing the right thing. This animal must die

Don't be absurd. Someone as mentally deficient as that won't be thinking logically enough to worried about the consequences of actions they don't actually know are wrong.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

No thanks to authorities with more power to kick in doors and track our every move. The simple answer is to empower us regular people to be good samaritans, perhaps even make it part of high school education on how and what to do when abuse or abandonment is suspected. Also the stupid police need to stop acting like they could solve a problem from ten minutes away and you can't even though you are right there.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Raising a child is not something parents do alone but is a social, human activity.

Sorry this is BS, especially if you are 2.

It underlies that it is OK that your child suffers if you are alone because it would be physically/mentally impossible.

If you are normal, it is just life !

Sorry to say, but life has not same value in Japan compare to the West.

To know she had many "friends" and none ever questioned her makes me sic. Also, where is her family ? And the father ?

Just no one cares or feel responsible.

Just the example of good samaritans above show that good is not the same as evil in order to make a place better.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

> The idea of preventing crime before it happens was the theme in the Spielberg move "Minority Report".

I’m not suggesting usurping freewill or locking people up.I am suggesting that Japanese have more schooling in empathy which would solve more than a few societal problems.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I’m not suggesting usurping freewill or locking people up.I am suggesting that Japanese have more schooling in empathy which would solve more than a few societal problems.

I think Japanese have empathy, just they are taught from a young age not to butt into other people's business. Stories by Ken and since1981 may have included a foreigner, but most Japanese expect and fear the same or even worse outcome if they involve themselves in someone else's problem.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

With a locked door and drawn blinds, and no absolute proof, what do the authorities do, break the door down? Huge dilemma for them, stressed and stretched as they are.

I'm not sure what case you are talking about, but this article seems to indicate they didn't even try to contact the family again, let alone involve the police. What's the point of the checkups if they aren't going going to check up?

An Ota Ward official visited their home on May 11, out of concern that Kakehashi had not brought Noa for her scheduled checkup, but there was no answer. It appears the date coincided with when Kakehashi was away visiting her boyfriend in Kagoshima.

Ogi said this is where the ward needed to take further aggressive action to reinforce the "social care system," including following a prescribed manual and coordinating with child welfare centers and local police to ensure child care safety.

"The ward can say we weren't able to reach her, and that's the end of it as far as their administrative job is concerned, but this is extremely irresponsible. They need to carry out an independent investigation into why this happened," he said.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

She found parenting "a burden" -- so she left her 3-year-old daughter alone in an apartment for 8 days while she "visited" her boyfriend? This is so sad on so many levels, it's nearly impossible to comprehend.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good luck with that. Police and prosecutors only care about winning a case ans 100% conviction. They don't care about the people. Why should they? What will they gain for helping and caring for other people?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I'm reminded of Rie Fujii. She left her fifteen month old and three month old to visit her boyfriend for ten days. I can't even imagine how heartless someone has to be to leave their baby home alone like that.

Once I was waiting for a train and a lady was there with twin babies. Little under a year old, I'd guess. One in her arms, one in a single stroller. She let go of the stroller for a moment and it rolled away, fell over and the baby starts crying.

What does she do? She PUTS THE OTHER BABY DOWN ON THE PLATFORM! Right there on the yellow line and runs off to the other baby. I'm horrified so I scoop up the platform baby and bring it over to where the mother is picking up the other one. I ask if she needs a little help and she gets angry. Yanks the baby from me, storms off juggling two babies and pushing the empty stroller awkwardly while insisting she can do it herself. Madam, clearly you cannot!

Hearing stories from other posters, goodness, at least she didn't call the police on me.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

As usual, doing nothing until someone dies. I have seen this way of actions for 31 years.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Don't be absurd. Someone as mentally deficient as that won't be thinking logically enough to worried about the consequences of actions they don't actually know are wrong.

Exactly. Look at her past. Abused as a child herself. Doesn't excuse her actions, but it goes some way to explaining them. She is a very disturbed individual and the authorities should have marked the child as being at risk from abuse from birth.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What does she do? She PUTS THE OTHER BABY DOWN ON THE PLATFORM! Right there on the yellow line and runs off to the other baby. I'm horrified so I scoop up the platform baby and bring it over to where the mother is picking up the other one. I ask if she needs a little help and she gets angry. Yanks the baby from me, storms off juggling two babies and pushing the empty stroller awkwardly while insisting she can do it herself. Madam, clearly you cannot!

Hearing stories from other posters, goodness, at least she didn't call the police on me.

I think she was wrong to be angry, but you should also know that most people would object to you grabbing their baby, especially in Japan. If I were in the same situation, I would have just positioned myself between the baby and the railroad, so he/she couldn't fall off.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The 24-year-old Kakehashi, who divorced Noa's father shortly after giving birth in 2016, was arrested last week and later sent to prosecutors on suspicion of leaving Noa on her own at their apartment for eight days in early June. Kakehashi was visiting her boyfriend in Kagoshima Prefecture at the time, according to police.

WTF?!?!?!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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