The Tokyo District Court has sentenced a 26-year-old woman to eight years in prison for parental neglect resulting in the death of her three-year-old daughter by leaving her at home alone for a week in 2020.
The court on Thursday handed down its ruling against Saki Kakehashi, Fuji TV reported. Kakehashi had pleaded guilty.
The court heard that she left tea and sweets for her daughter Noa at their apartment in Ota Ward while she went to Kagoshima for one week to spend time with her then boyfriend. She said she thought Noa would be alright.
Kakehashi made an emergency call upon her return from the trip on June 13, 2020, claiming Noa was not breathing, Kyodo News reported. Noa was taken to hospital where she died from dehydration and hunger. Her stomach was almost empty.
Doctors also found a rash on her bottom as her diaper had apparently been unchanged for a long time. Prosecutors claim Kakehashi tried to hide the fact that Noa had been left alone by applying ointment to a rash on her bottom and changing her into a fresh diaper just before she called 119, Kyodo reported.
Prosecutors said that before leaving for Kagoshima, Kakehashi barricaded Noa inside the living room with a sofa blocking off entrance to the kitchen. Kakehashi said she did this to prevent Noa from harming herself with knives or other kitchen items.
Noa had not attended her daycare center for more than a year prior to her death. Kakehashi lived alone with her daughter after divorcing Noa’s father in 2016.
Prosecutors also said that Kakehashi would often leave Noa at home alone while she went to bars and pachinko parlors and bars with friends.
© Japan Today
38 Comments
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Todd
Only 8 years? That is absolutely ridiculous. This is the second time that this girl abandoned her daughter Noa like this. The Judge should be jailed as well. And what about her boyfriend, did he even know that she had a daughter?
rainyday
The combination of stupidity and cold indifference that it takes to make a decision like that just boggles the mind.
Fighto!
8 years is nothing. The scum will be out in her mid 30s, and may even have another child. I hope so much she is haunted in every sleep and lives her life in endless terror and misery.
Rest in peace to the little angel Noa-chan.
TokyoJoe
Thank you JT for following up on the sentencing, please do this for all the stories you cover regarding trials / convictions.
Wilbur Cobb
Poor thing. Sounds like she would have been better off with her father than this sorry excuse for a "mother".
RIP Little one.
Chico3
That’s a complete slap on the wrist. Kind of makes you wonder how precious and valuable life really is in Japan. I hope karma hits that loser in prison.
blue in green
A convoluted way of describing a premeditated murder.
Anyone knows if you leave a toddler of 3 alone for a week, locked in somewhere with no food or water, they will die.
The careless cruelty she inflicted on her own child, such pain and suffering,
left in solitary confinement with no food or water.
8 years seems light.
snowymountainhell
The week’s absence in Jun 2020 was not an isolated incident. Saki Kakehashi had also done a trial run in May 2020 for 3 days. From previous media reports: “Police also previously said that the suspect also visited her boyfriend in Kagoshima for three days in May, during which time she also abandoned Noa.” -
Lindsay
Hopefully 8 years is enough to make this idiot wake up. It’s too late for her daughter though.
smithinjapan
More bell-jar justice for you. Better than the two years or simple suspended sentences murdering moms usually get in Japan, but still FAR less than she should have gotten. Let's hope her life in prison is pure hell... so much so that she is made to suffer what her child did... every single day for those eight years.
Nihon Tora
An almost identical case in the UK saw a 19 year old mother, Verphy Kudi, sentenced to 9 years - she left her 20 month old daughter at home for almost 6 days while she went out partying with her friends. I know these are obviously quite young women struggling with the responsibility of motherhood, but 8 or 9 years for doing something that is obviously going to imperil a child of that age does seem lenient.
Speed
7 years is about the max that parents here get for killing their own kids.
I had really hoped this thing would get more for such cruel infanticide.
Cigars N Coffee
8 years? Anyone who takes another person life intentionally should get life in prison.
Rest In Peace baby girl!
Michael Machida
So, kill someone and spend eight years in prison? I'm not good at math, but something does not add up here.
purple_depressed_bacon
I'm sorry, I think there must be a typo in the heading. I'm sure you meant 80 years right? Because if you sentenced this monster to a meager 8 in jail then you might as well do away with the justice system altogether. I am utterly disgusted by this sentencing. What a disgrace.
WA4TKG
If you don't want to take care of a kid, don't HAVE one...and if you DO; put them up for ADOPTION instead of killing them; yeah ?
MilesTeg
It should be a murder charge. Leaving a 3yrs old alone for a week with no access to the kitchen and nobody checking up on her is a death sentence.
snowymountainhell
Society must always consider the fate of the descendent, first. - Saki Kakehashi should never see the freedom and a (*2nd, or 3rd**) chance at a life her innocent daughter was denied. Despite her ‘guilty plea’ and subsequent, alleged ‘suicide attempt’ there should have been no degree of leniency.
Yet, the court probably gave consideration for the accused’s own past and wrecked childhood. Seems this media spared us the details:
Zaphod
Elvis is here
Absolutely horrible. Torturing little children is the lowest level one can sink to.
Kobe White Bar Owner
She got 8 year but hell is still waiting for her and may it be extra hot! RIP little one you deserved so much more!
kaimycahl
WOW just 26 she will get out of jail at 34 y.o. hot and ready to have another child and do the same thing again The Tokyo District Court has sentenced a 26-year-old woman to eight years in prison for parental neglect resulting in the death of her three-year-old daughter by leaving her at home alone for a week in 2020.
ReynardFox
At age26, she’s old enough to know a three year old can’t take care of itself. 8 years is appallingly light. And that 8 years is the MAX. I’d be shocked if she served the full sentence.
shogun36
8 years? Pathetic. it should be at least 88 years.
The judge and jury should get 8 years each themselves for letting this “human” off so easily,.
Canucksfan
They need to issue licenses in order to have children.
Rob-3
...
Makes perfect sense. She clearly thought this through and planned for every possible scenario.
It's not like this was the first time, what could go wrong?
((R.I.P. Noa... ))
twinans
This is so sick. What was wrong with her? Why would anyone do such a thing? She could have let someone look after her. What was she thinking? I am above repulsed and sad.
snowymountainhell
“Rest In Peace” dear sweet Noa. - The follow-thru is here but not the ‘just’ outcome many anticipated.
Valiant Kake
She probably had mental health issues, hence the only eight years. She also apologized profusely with sympathetic excuses, a mercy getter in Japan. This particular incident is especially brutal, callous and cruel. A normal mother, even in negligent death of a child, could not have left a three old child neglected for a week with hardly anything to eat! Couldn't she make arrangements with her parents or with somebody that would care for her child? The boyfriend sounds suspicious, too.
Yohan
Totally irresponsible person who thinks only about herself, but 8 years in a Japanese prison is different from serving the same time in a Western prison which is more like a holiday camp. She will face a hard time.
Too lenient sentence? I doubt if the sentence would be so much different anywhere else, a woman gets away almost everywhere with a shorter sentence than a man for identical crimes.
Darren Ward
This is utterly heart breaking......
Some people don't deserve children......
Rest In Peace little one.....no more pain now.
Yohan
I really wonder what these parents who are mistreating children in such a horrible way are thinking about themselves. What do they gain by committing such a meaningless crime? They will end up in prison for years, for what?
If you don't want to take care of your own children for whatever reason, try to move them on, away from you - at least for a limited time - to somebody else who is willing to care, also talk with some staff in welfare centers and similar places and ask them to help you.
While adoption is difficult in Japan, to give consent to transfer parental rights to somebody else for a while is easy, there are even forms for that, for example if you take children of other people with you for holidays,
Mr Kipling
Come on, she is obviously not mentally fit to be convicted of murder, so parental neglect is the charge. Also obviously not fit to be a parent. I'm sure there were or should have been others who spotted this and did nothing. She will be out in 5-6 years and young enough to have more kids. Probably not a great idea.
Oxycodin
Golden great news Japan finally taking it seriously for a cry, next step is to trial teenagers with life without parole for serious crimes at the age of 16 like The Godfather of USA