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Police in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, have arrested a 27-year-old woman on charges of parental neglect after she left her two young children at home alone for over 10 hours while she played pachinko.
According to police, Saki Shirahama, a self-professed bar worker, left her two children, who are under the age of 10, at home from 8 a.m. on Sunday, Kyodo News reported. The front door was not locked, police said. A neighbor contacted the police after noticing that the children were alone without their mother.
Shirahama returned home at 6:20 p.m. The children were not ill or harmed in any way, police said.
Police are questioning Shirahama about whether she has left the children at home alone before.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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juminRhee
And any mention of the free or low cost daycare available?
Jonathan Prin
Father, where is thee father...or maybe he was rejected voluntarily by this poor lady.
William Bjornson
Yeah, I hear you Mr Kipling, "a self-professed bar worker" like a 'self-professed' serial killer... A single mother with two children who, if she is good at it, may bring home a fair amount to feed her fatherless kids from those pens and trinkets she wins at Pachinko. And the other-worldliness of the mind-numbing noise and concentration on the ball paths and nanometer changes in the adjustment of their trajectories is a more powerful 'drug' and panacea to the over-stressed mind than any pharmaceutical and can be thrown off as soon as one exits the parlor and heads to the payoff window. If America had Pachinko, Meth would not be near the problem it is. And, from what I have seen, unattended Japanese children are much less likely to set the house on fire than their American counterparts. I would hope that her world is not made even more hopeless by over reacting Authority who cannot imagine walking a mile in her geta...
Jeremiah
Where is the father? Sometimes it feels like broken families are becoming more of the norm in Japan.
shogun36
how can anyone even play that much pachinko in one sitting?
the woman needs to be put away, for life
justasking
8am - 6pm. That’s like typical day for any family in Japan where parents go to work while kids are on summer break.
Nosy neighbor.
kaimycahl
When I read the title I already knew the moms occupation "a self-professed bar worker". Question where was the father? I am assuming this women must have been a single parent! What I can't believe is the question the police ask "whether she has left the children at home alone before" that is a no brainer. Come on do they will expect her to tell them the truth? The lights on but nobody's home?
kokontozai
95% of Japanese would not oppose a ban on pachinko. It should be abolished.
JOEE (dot) jp
The neglectful mother was arrested and the children were probably placed into protective care along with about 40,000 other children in Japan who are being cared for by orphanages and children's homes. My heart goes out to these kids. 5 years ago, I started a nonprofit foundation, JOEE.jp, that teaches fun, native-level English classes to these neglected children in order to give them an educational boost... and a bit of sunshine. What they really need, of course, is a stable family with loving, responsible parents. Japan needs to improve its laws to allow more children to be adopted into families.
Robert N
I was often left to my own devices at home or elsewhere growing up.
Mr Kipling
What does this mean? When asked her occupation she answered "bar worker".
She isn't a bar worker but lied?
Fighto!
So just turn a blind eye to a deadbeat neighbour who leaves her little kids to fend for themselves for 10 hours? No. That's not what good folk do.
Full respect to the neighbor who clearly was concerned about the welfare of these little kids. Guaranteed this wasn't the first time the dropkick woman has done this.
TrevorPeace
Nosy neighbour.
Sanjinosebleed
Model citizen….Not! Yet these troglodytes are allowed to breed like rabbits…