A woman in her 30s and her one-year-old daughter died after they were found in the parking lot outside their apartment building in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, on Sunday morning. Police believe the woman, holding her daughter, jumped from their apartment balcony.
According to police, another resident in the apartment building heard a loud thud outside at around 7:30 a.m. and called 110. Police rushed to the apartment and found the bodies of the woman and her daughter lying on the ground in the car parking lot, both bleeding from head injuries. They were taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Police are questioning the husband about why his wife might have wanted to kill herself and their daughter.
© Japan Today
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Do the hustle
I wonder if this is counted as a murder.
Yubaru
In reality it's a murder-suicide! Mom taking her life is one thing, but taking the life of her daughter, no matter what the situation was, is unconscionable.
My thoughts go out to the husband and family of the child mostly, and in part for the mother! (May she burn in hell for murdering her child!)
gogogo
Kill yourself, don't murder the innocent as well. Poor little kid.
wtfjapan
I wonder if this is counted as a murder.
actually murder and suicide, but it's very difficult to prosecute the dead.
ArtistAtLarge
So sad. :(
InspectorGadget
It's a murder-suicide. That poor 1 year old had no choice in this case.
One thing that Japan should be of about is it extremely poor systems for managing mental illness. You hear of these new mothers killing themselves and their children fairly regularly in the news. Many maternity services in other countries assist in pre and postnatal physical care while also checking on the mental well-being of the mothers. In Japan . . . next to nothing.
Post-natal depression is a killer as serious as any physical ailment associated with childbirth.
Belrick
How very assumptuous of you.
Indeed it is. We have a 1 month old and the lack of sleep is very real!
Strangerland
What?! Do you not have kids here or something? Or maybe you don't speak Japanese? Not only do mothers kill themselves in other countries as well, Japan has pre and post natal care, as well as mental well being checks, and plenty of information to pregnant mothers AND fathers (who choose to participate) on how to identify post-partum depression and where to get help for it.
Strangerland
One of our guys has a six-week old. He's constantly in a daze, poor guy isn't sleeping enough at all. I told the other guys to give him a bit of leeway, but to double check his work.
I think anyone who has had a newborn has some understanding of this.
doel jusino
Not so in my opinion, I raised three boys as a single father and I cherished every moment as a single father.
Sure it was tough at times but that's part of being a parent, You deal with the good and the bad and move forward. Killing yourself and your child is a cowards way out. This baby was one year old so the mother had enough time to get her nurturing routine together and to over the stress of caring for the baby. She was just not a good person or a good mother.
If person can't deal with being a parent then give your baby to someone who want's it DO NOT KILL YOUR BABY !!! Their is always Sunshine at the end of the Tunnel.
Jonathan Prin
Sure you sleep less, but so far from getting nuts. You don't suffer pain by lack of sleep. You are just sleepy, and happy of having a child.
But know in Japan that :
women will sleep with baby all the time.
do not ever ask for friends to help, only family (so if no family close, no help)
husbands will not help at all for most and consider work over helpi'g for care.For me and my Japanese wife : asked to put baby in his bedroom, especially to teach to cry less. Accepted presence of mother in law who was so helpful (thanks again!) And I did my part each time possible.
You need to reassure first time moms a lot, especially from other women.
Strangerland
Um, what makes you think that the above opinion should have more relevance to us than science, actual reported data?
Jonathan Prin
@Strangerland, what science report are you talking about ?
Psychological help in Japan is a joke in view of the added stress
I am giving other external reasons that you get this kind of recurring behaviour, which is not the result of having a baby but of J society.
I does happen in all country for sure but surely often for a rich country where you get supposedly all the kind of help you mentioned.
Experience speaks.
The_True
@Strangerland stop the excuses, "but in other country" it's very rare for women jumping from building with they kids, in japan is like is a hobbies, having kids in japan is like having a pet, you know that, i'm not saying everyone, but i would say 90%, they feel having kids is an social obligation.
Strangerland
Um post-partum depression of course. It's a very real, very documented thing. Duh.
Strangerland
I didn't excuse anything. And maybe you should figure out what you're talking about before talking - I brought up the fact that this happens everywhere in the world, as the poster to whom I was replying had claimed it's a Japanese specific phenomenon:
smithinjapan
Strangerland: "Japan has pre and post natal care, as well as mental well being checks, and plenty of information to pregnant mothers AND fathers (who choose to participate) on how to identify post-partum depression and where to get help for it."
And yet we read about this almost daily here, but not elsewhere, and you use the same talking points almost daily as well. May not be Japanese-specific, but it certainly happens here a LOT more often, and there is no way you can honestly believe the support system here for depression is as good as in other places -- except maybe Taliban controlled Afghanistan. And meanwhile you have not said a single thing in regards to how said it is that a child is dead as a result of this selfish and stupid murderer. RIP to the little baby born to an absolute horrid person who should never have had children.
I feel genuinely sorry if someone gets to the point where they feel they cannot seek help and the only way out is suicide, but STOP taking others with you! This happens FAR too frequently here.
Henny Penny
Are you a specialist in comparative mental health systems or are you just repeating a common cliche?
I see similar cases reported in US/UK newspapers.
The technical term for mother child murder suicide is filicide but this is seldom used in journalistic reports. You will, however, have no trouble turning up US/UK examples if you search on mother child murder suicide. For example,
https://people.com/crime/michigan-mom-drove-children-into-river-suspected-murder-suicide/
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/06/03/report-brighton-mom-daughter-dead-possible-murder-suicide/1336047001/
You will probably hear of more Japanese cases not because they are more common but because the Japanese and US news media is structured very differently.
The_True
Henny Penny
hahahahahahaha.....
In the US the media be all over that kind of news, unlike japanese media sweep under the rug and try they best to paint negative news about japan as unfortunate and that was an accident, never called like it's MURDER!!
Oh, Pie!
Was the husband employed? And do we know if he had any gambling problems or debt?