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Yua Funato is seen in this image taken from the Facebook page of her mother Yuri Funato.
crime

Mother admits neglect in death of 5-year-old daughter; feared husband's reprisals

38 Comments

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"I didn't know my husband had beaten Yua," a weeping Funato told the Tokyo District Cour

Yes, you did. You lived in a small flat, I assume you bathed, fed, talked to and dressed your child, read the notes she left. The neighbours heard the beatings, and you didn't.

17 ( +21 / -4 )

Please, saying she didn't know the husband was beating the child is a bold-faced lie, she's just trying to blame him for everything despite the fact that she was an accomplice. If she was so concerned you'd think she would have been happy to work with the child welfare center when they visited her instead of refusing them, no doubt knowing the kid would have been taken away once they saw the evidence of abuse!

Terrible woman and I hope that she gets a harsh punishment.

16 ( +18 / -2 )

Regardless of her fear of her husband she should not have let the abuse go on. She was also being abused. I know it is a difficult decision, but someone has to take it. The father must be a real monster!

15 ( +18 / -3 )

That picture breaks my heart every time I see it. The notes begging them to love her again, promising not to play, make me weep. That she was left outside in thin pyjamas - on Christmas morning - should have been enough to keep these monsters away from her.

The poor girl died, afraid and alone, in her own home where she should have felt loved and safe.

Yes, the mother and stepfather should be punished severely for the rest of their lives. But also, the child protection services whose failures led to her awful, lonely death need to find whoever was responsible and make sure he never works again.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

But also, the child protection services whose failures led to her awful, lonely death need to find whoever was responsible and make sure he never works again.

Yep.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

"I didn't know my husband had beaten Yua," a weeping Funato told the Tokyo District Court,

so you missed the parts in her notes that asked you and your pathetic husband to stop mistreating her? what did you think he was doing? giving her love taps?

sorry, but there is not a big enough mitigating factor that lets you off the hook, mom. it is your sole job to protect your child, even in the face of your own death. what parent wouldn't give their own life in order for their child to survive?

9 ( +12 / -3 )

Reading this makes me so sad! I really hope they use all the media attention this crime has brought to encourage couples going thru a similar situation to come out and stop the worst from happening. I know this might be wishful thinking but one can only hope!

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Both parents are obviously guilty and not fit to raise a child but there is no excuse for a mother not sticking up for her child and letting her die no matter what the circumstances.

There where so many things the mother could have done to protect her child from her monster of a father but she only thought about the repercussions to herself while she should have put her child's interests first.

She had been taken into the protective custody of a child welfare center in Kagawa twice. Another center in Tokyo tried to check on Yua in February last year, but the mother refused to let its officials see her.

A welfare ministry panel that looked into the matter concluded in a report in October that there had been insufficient liaison between the two centers.

What an enormous blunders committed by these government institutions leading to this tragedy.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

so take the child and run. Lies. Throw the book at her

7 ( +15 / -8 )

That picture breaks my heart every time I see it. The notes begging them to love her again, promising not to play, make me weep.

The picture instantly reminds me of those notes. Saddest, most heart-wrenching thing I've ever read.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

"I didn't know my husband had beaten Yua,"

Even if she had not been beaten, the kid was very obviously starving and that, she knew.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Is the husband to be considered blameless

Of course not, he is guilty of killing the poor girl, but this article is about the mother and her statements in court, and her blatant lie that she never knew her daughter was being abused.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Yua's death on March 2, 2018, attracted nationwide attention and prompted Japan to enact revised laws in June, banning parents and other guardians from physically punishing children and strengthening the ability of child welfare centers to intervene in abuse cases.

And if she gets sentenced, it will hopefully be a wake up call to all women in abusive relationships whose children are also being abused to take their children and get the f out.

Can we please, please, offer more services and help for single moms, so that they have the financial independence to leave abusive men? 

This

5 ( +5 / -0 )

The failures of the mom notwithstanding, the real monster here is clearly the father. He should be charged with murder rather than negligence causing death.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

This woman is even more of a monster than her husband. She allowed it, and she lied about it, and she watched her baby die. She deserves life in prison.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

When does fear stop being an excuse? We all have a moral responsibility to face our fears and do what's right. She put her own wellbeing ahead of her daughter. She's a coward and deserves no leniency.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Can we please, please, offer more services and help for single moms, so that they have the financial independence to leave abusive men? One reason women stay in these situations is because they would not otherwise be able to feed their kids or themselves. Another reason is emotional abuse, which is an issue that is very very difficult to talk about as it has its roots in how women are generally treated as children and not encouraged to be independent and stand on their own. When you soicalize women to be utterly dependent on men, financially, mentally, and emotionally, this is going to be the result.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Most parents would die for their child, not this one because "Oh the husband might get angry.".

Also, what were the neighbors hearing when all this abuse was going on???

3 ( +4 / -1 )

May you burn in hell

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Any police involvement in a domestic dispute usually just ends with the police attending and no charges being pressed.

As a foreigner it is best to never get in between the couple creating a scene.

It is likely that the guy will turn on you- if punching a Japanese is your thing then be prepared for a jail sentence and/or deportation.

In this case it is obvious that the mother was afraid of the husband and should have left.

She didn’t and this was the result...

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Your child can't defend themselves, so as a parent, you have to protect them at all costs. There is no way you look at their face and not see a part of yourself. As a parent myself, I just can't fathom how you can do this to your child

3 ( +3 / -0 )

For a 5 year old to write something like that....it totally smashed my heart into pieces. This is so heartbreaking. The only thing I can do now is to say a prayer for her. RIP.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Children are our future . . . .

3 ( +3 / -0 )

hang her

Seond rate sentiment.

Murder is not the answer. It doesn't solve anything.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

In the end it is always the males their fault, at least that is the easy way out.

This father beat his daughter and stopped her from being fed properly so yeah I would say he was at fault to a higher degree than her mother.

Both are two utterly repulsive human beings responsible for the death of an innocent young girl.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Wow! Some of the comments in this thread are horrid! This woman is the victim of some kind of morally retarded monster.

She let her child die so she is indeed a monster, parents are supposed to give their lives for their children there simply can't be any excuse to justify her actions.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

In the end it is always the males their fault, at least that is the easy way out.

Our father was the most gentle father and extremly calm as well as fair to us as my siblings and I were children, our mother however, beat the hell out of us when ever we dared to move against her will or when she was in bad mood.

I am actually surprised we survived her.

Yet, what ever went wrong she always blamed our father for it.

It is grand time for females to be held accountable to full power of the law.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

The Little girl could have been anything.  She could have been cool and started a band or been great in sciences.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Most parents would die for their child, not this one because "Oh the husband might get angry.".

She could have been terrified of the husband. We just don't know.

Also, what were the neighbors hearing when all this abuse was going on???

Keeping themselves to themselves. It happens & not just here in Japan. Not saying it was right, mind.

I got punched in the face for trying to intervene in a domestic, once. It made me think twice about getting involved again.

We just don't know what to do, given the situation and the moment.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Wow! Some of the comments in this thread are horrid! This woman is the victim of some kind of morally retarded monster.

Yes, the mother and stepfather should be punished severely for the rest of their lives. But also, the child protection services whose failures led to her awful, lonely death need to find whoever was responsible and make sure he never works again.

The position of child services is a very difficult one and, in Japan, they have no real power and very few resources. Their mandate is to keep the child in the family, not to remove a child for any kind of abuse. The life of an orphaned child in Japan is also horrid because Japan does not have a satisfactory system of fostering or adoption. The kids spend their lives in institutions being shunned by society and ostracized through the public education system. This is what the child services want to avoid. Unfortunately, with the frequency of the ever growing problem of child abuse in Japan, many children slip through the cracks and become victims of not only their parents abuse, but also of a terribly structured protection and support system.

This plague of recent macabre child abuse in Japan is directly related to education and the failing economy. The failing economy is putting people under more stress than they have ever had to deal with before and they are not coping. The education system does nothing to prepare young people for adulthood. It only prepares ‘empty shells’ (quote from the education minister) to be indoctrinated into Japan Inc. The Japanese society and economy are not what they were 30 years ago, but the same mindset remains. Sadly, child abuse and youth suicide will continue to rise because very few people actually grow up and become independent adults in Japan. It’s pretty much a nation of over emotional 13 year olds. There are no initiatives in Japan to lessen the stresses put on these children. Who remembers Premium Friday?

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

girl in tokyo:

Can we please, please, offer more services and help for single moms, so that they have the financial independence to leave abusive men?

Japan does have a quite generous welfare system. This was not the issue here.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Is the husband to be considered blameless

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Dear Toasted, killing bloody murderers serves many things, it reduces the chances to reoffend ( she wont be able to kill another child of hers) and it removes the need of society to care for her and it serves example to any other mothers and fathers like that... which definitely will make them think twice.

Capital punishment is fortunately legal and accepted in Japan!

Besides that if you think she has a iota of innocence, its crystal clear she is a liar trying to push it all on the husband ., in fact it even possible that she was the main offender and the husband just taking the fall, she is the one that did not let social services see the child.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

hang her

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

so take the child and run. Lies. Throw the book at her

It's always the woman that must be punished, eh?

As with all these tragedies, we never have the full details. But you can guarantee at least one comment that is akin to judge, jury and would-be executioner.

Horrible case. Horrible response.

-7 ( +10 / -17 )

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