crime

Osaka suicide mother charged with murdering her own daughter

22 Comments

Police on Monday filed charges against a 22-year-old mother, who committed suicide, with strangling her 18-day-old daughter at their home in Moriguchi City, Osaka, in January. The mother who told police a burglar had assaulted her and killed her daughter, subsequently committed suicide by leaping to her death from a footbridge one week after the incident.

Izumi Yamanaka, 22, was charged with allegedly strangling her 18-day-old daughter, Reiya, by taping her nose and mouth with plastic tape. Yamanaka told police a burglar assaulted them, tied her up with tape and then killed Reiya.

According to police investigations, no evidence of burglary was found and Yamanaka's injuries were not consistent with having been tied up by another person. Police said Yamanaka was mentally unstable after the delivery of her child.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

22 Comments
Login to comment

Post partem depression? What's the point of charging a dead person?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well, two reasons. First, if they get a conviction their conviction rate will remain high and, according to proponents of the death penalty, a conviction will prevent other women from having postpartum depression.

I hope they don't tell the widower and her parents about this; that would be rubbing salt into a wound, in my opinion.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What's the point of charging a dead person?

It allows them to close the case. Otherwise, we must assume a killer is still roaming free.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sounded pretty fishy back then as a lot of us said, she probably was the killer.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How do charge someone that is dead?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That's really sad. Do not get married and have babies too early. Tape sounds like she couldn't handle the crying.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Wow. I remember reading about this before in the papers, the murder and her subsequent suicide. The thought of the mother being guilty didn't even cross my mind. What a horrible thing. The strain was just too much for her to bear. It's easy to say "don't have kids too early" but unfortunatley, most young people don't really understand what they are getting into. All they know is it feels good and it temporarily helps them escape from their depressing life. Then to realize that there is a crying completely dependent kid that will take all your attetnion and efforts, and the father is rarely there to offer any support other than the bare minimum finanancial, effectively killing any hopes you had for yourself for the future. Sad sad way to end a short life.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

bamboohat, sounds like we view this similarly, as we use the same adjective. Agreed there is little benefit to shaming the deceased, though a lack of appreciation for the full consequences of a choice made young suggests the need to get the word out more, not less.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Even after death there's still paperwork.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

You could close the books by calling the infants death "death at the hands of another" without charging the deceased mother with murder. So is someone going to defend the mother in court? Sounds like a good case for an insanity plea to me. We have to find out what kind of tape she sued so we can ban it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Perhaps the cops are shaming her family on purpose, maybe to get the word out to would be suicide killing mothers: "It doesn't end with you, sweety."

Of course, this might have the opposite effect, as would be suicide killers can get the idea of killing themselves and their kid to get back at the world.

They really need to make it socially acceptable, and easily accessable to use birth control, rubbers, whatever.

but then again, maybe this person thought having a kid would solve all her problems, and as it turned out, well....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Stupid quote of the day: [It allows them to close the case. Otherwise, we must assume a killer is still roaming free.].

They can close the case as suicide of the baby's killer without charging an actual individual. I wonder is this is a translation problem. But who knows... if they didn't close the case.... there could be a killer roaming around somewhere... Make sense?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Kids having kids is a recipe for disaster and it is not only Japan that has this kind of problem. However, Japan does seriously lack support and education centers for these kids. I was 18 when I had my first kid, but the thought of taking its life or my own did not even cross my mind. Common sense told me to get educated about kids. Clearly there is a general lack of emotional stability in Japanese society and all too often we see this scenario unfolding. I could name at least ten cases of baby abuse in the last year and all were carried out by people under 25 and most resulted in the death of the infant or both. What is wrong with these people and/or the society we are living in?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I feel sorry for the woman if she was really so depressed as to do something like this but I still think she should be charged with murder. All parents or guardians who kill their kids while attempting suicide should be charged with murder and if the parent was successful in killing himself or herself, it should still be officially listed as murder where the child is concerned. I always wondered how these murder / suicides were officially listed and whether or not doing so correctly would change the official numbers on murder in Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

serendipity: You're right to question why a society wouldn't try and take care of people who are having emotional difficulties but I disagree with any implication that Japan is worse in terms of this problem. Post partum depression is recognized in many cultures as being a real problem. In Japan traditionally a new mother's mother or mother-in-law would help her with the new baby for 40 days after the birth. This was partly to give her time to rest and to teach her about the baby but also (consciously or not) to help her through the period of hormonal adjustment that comes after having a baby and which is extremely difficult for some women. It has nothing to do with a lack of emotionally stability in Japan as it occurs to rather high degrees in all cultures but more so in industrialized ones due to shifting family values and a lack of support as well as a decrease in traditional rituals designed to help women adjust to motherhood. That it did not happen to you is great but that you see it as a simple matter of common sense tells me you know little to nothing about the realitiy of post partum depression.

www.granitescientific.com/granitescientific%20home%20page_files/bms%20rituals.pdf - http://www.ncpamd.com/Postpartum_Depression.htm

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Thank you for pointing that out Ambrosia. You don't have kids, do you? Common sense would tell you to get help for post partum depression, would it not? Or am I showing male logic?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Common sense would tell you to get help for post partum depression, would it not? Or am I showing male logic?

Yes it would and yes you are. The problem with depression is that in many cases the person doesn't realise they have depression. The first step to solving any problem is recognising that there is a problem.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A Japanese friend of mine has clinical depression. I've listened to her talk about it a lot, and I think that cleo is right, most people don't know they have it.

In my friend's case I give her a hug whenever I see her, she says that helps a lot. So perhaps more showing affection and caring in society is the place to start...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Poor woman... poor child.

Sad.

USAR

0 ( +0 / -0 )

serendipity: Not to be rude but I'm not sure why my having or not having children would have any bearing on what I wrote. Nor does that fact that you had children make you an expert on either children or post partum depression. Again, if you think that common sense should dictate what someone does when they are depressed then you haven't ever really been depressed. Depression can cause such inertia that a depressed person may go days or weeks without showering and months without leaving his or her house. If you are seriously interested in this topic and are not just looking for a chance to bash Japan and or this woman, I would recommend two excellent and very readable books on depression: The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon and Night Falls Fast by Kay Redfield Jamison. Whether or not people know they have depression is certainly an issue. Many people do realize that something is wrong but having no vocabulary to discuss how they are feeling prevents many people from recognizing the problem and from getting help.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The woman was 22 when she had her baby. That is hardly a case of a "kid having a kid". That is old enough to have finished university and begun a career. It is old enough to have been in the military for 4 years and to have been eligible to vote for 2. Whether or not a typical 22-year old in this day and age is less mature than a typical 22-year old from 25 years ago is questionable but not having known this woman I can't say how mature she was or wasn't. I think we can agree though that she was sadly lacking in the help that might have prevented this tragedy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

ambrosia well it seems that japanese mature and a different rate or to be rude. Even in their fities they act like spoiled brats

May the kid rest in peace and her mother go to the jigoku

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites