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crime

Mother acquitted of defrauding co-op by starving child

8 Comments

A 35-year-old mother was acquitted Monday of defrauding a cooperative out of mutual aid money by starving her daughter to the point of hospitalization in 2023.

The Osaka District Court, however, gave Kasumi Nawata a six-month prison term, suspended for two years, for attempted coercion by ordering the girl, who was 8 at the time, not to eat.

During the trial, Nawata denied all the charges, saying she had no intention of worsening her daughter's health or defrauding the cooperative by applying to hospitalization coverage. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of three years and six months.

Presiding Judge Kunitaka Iwasaki rejected the prosecutors' claim that Nawata caused her daughter to develop low blood sugar by continuously withholding meals, saying the mother had been following medical guidance from a doctor regarding how to feed her daughter, who had been repeatedly hospitalized due to illness.

However, the judge found that Nawata attempted to prevent her daughter from eating during one hospitalization by telling her over the phone, "Don't eat, sleep," noting the message was enough to instill fear and went "far beyond the bounds of discipline."

Nawata was indicted for allegedly endangering her daughter's health -- including actions that led to her January 2023 hospitalization -- and swindling 140,000 yen from the cooperative.

© KYODO

©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.

8 Comments
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Japan has economy problem, so mother willing to do that, really?

While Condo price is rising from to time in Japan.

-13 ( +2 / -15 )

Japan needs some serious judicial reforms. That lady belongs in prison for at least 10 years. No more suspended sentencing. This is just another example of why people will not have children. Japan does not protect the ones that they do have. Stuck in the 60's

-9 ( +5 / -14 )

Children in dangerous situation but nobody care so in some way, no kids avoid dramatic death...

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is the psychological term for this abuse.

Very common.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

and all of this have happened just because of 140.000JPY?

very cruel mother.sentence is not right,think about psychological effect of that baby.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Well if you are going to free her, at least take the daughter away. She deserves to live in a loving home.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

It is a form of attention seeking behaviour within, usually, a medical setting.

Hospitals cant determine why a child continues to be sick....sometimes they install a monitoring camera, hidden from view.

A few cases where Mother adding stuff to any saline solution going into a vein.

"Stuff " might include Mothers faeces .

Wonder whether Mother will be charged with something like "reckless endangering to life " or similar.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

cheap

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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