Parents arrested for strangling 35-year-old abusive son to death in Chiba

How very sad.

Very sad indeed but begs the obvious question - why was someone with his condition living at home? The answer too is obvious - total lack of mental health care in this country.

sad...

Very sad indeed but begs the obvious question - why was someone with his condition living at home? The answer too is obvious - total lack of mental health care in this country.

That's what I thought as well. Families aren't equipped to deal with someone with mental disturbances - especially with violent tendencies.

How very sad indeed.

Sad. The heartbreak the parents must have gone through to get to this stage. Kill or be killed!!!!

This is a sad end to a bad situation. This violent loon was living at home and should have been in an institution. It makes one ask, how many more of these violent loons are running around town? The mental health services and special education facilities for retards are very few and far between. Most of these retards end up living at home with their aging parents and abusing them. It's a scenario played out every day in Japan. The fact this couple felt they had no alternative than to end their son's life shows exactly how little support there is for these people. Quite a few times I've seen senior aged mothers struggling with retarded adults at train stations or on the street. What exactly do I pay huge amounts of national health insurance for?

I witnessed a similar situation in a Matsudo station just about 5 days ago, with an elderly tiny woman, sitting on the chest of her much larger mentally ill son who was having a violent breakdown. The station manager heard the noise saw people staring and didn't come out and check until 2 foreigners looked at him like, "aren't you here to help?" The police were arriving as we left, but the man needed a doctor.

Keisei Chiba/Tsudanuma line is full of people like that. It is quite sad these people can't get any help.

Another great piece of police deduction here.

Just for the record, there is a big difference between "retards" and "nutters" (I'm not going to bother being PC).

"Retards" have a handicap of the brain and are either born with it or acquire it through injury. They have impaired brain function but are usually relatively mentally stable.

"Nutters" can be normal people, with no damage psychically to their brain, but for some reason, their minds cease to function in a normal manner.

Some people can be both and are referred to as "dual diagnosis" in the business. This is often because of the hardships and stress of being "retarded" can later lead to mental illness.

The guy in this article definitely comes across as a nutter and while families can look after a "retard" on their own, "nutters" do need outside help, which Japan lacks. This guy needed to see a doctor or be looked after in a mental institution, especially if he was showing violent tendencies. It's a tragedy for both him and his parents that nobody considered it, and so it led to this. What really ticks me off is doctors HAVE to know the difference between the two, but whether this was incompetence on the medical professionals part, or a typical Japanese "skeletons in the closet" family problem, or both, I don't know.

I used to be a caregiver for mentally handicapped people so I know what I'm talking about. It's sad that the two get lumped together (especially in Japan), both because "retards" are not crazy and just need a little extra care, while "nutters" are mentally ill but do have the chance to get better, which "retarded" people rarely do.

Japan is truly lacking in mental healthcare options. I think a lot of what we see in violence is a demonstration of this fact.

Japan needs to change in so many ways to improve the lives of ordinary Japanese families that it is getting hard to see past the mountain of issues to a better future.

It starts with a more representative goverment that can take the wishes and needs of the people seriously. Japan needs a political reinvention followed by years of hard, expensive and painful restructuring to achieve what the people will inevitably need.

How could this go on for 7 years??

Kazuo told police that their son suffered from a mental disorder and would suddenly become violent. He said that their son had punched and kicked them over the past seven years, and was quoted as saying: “It came to the point where we thought if we didn’t kill him, he would kill us.”

This went on for 7 years!?

Wonder what his diagnosis was... Wonder what his doctor has to say about this...

As has already been posted Japanese mental health services is in the dark ages.

There are tens of thousands of patients under medication in mental institutions in Japan who should not be there. The WHO ordered the J govt a couple of years back to free up 75,000 beds and organize care in the community for those who really shouldn't be incarcerated.

At the same time they were encouraged to provide special wards for the criminally insane.

At present it seems that a lot of people need help and sorting out one way or the other. The example above must be the unfortunate tip of the iceberg.

NetteMarie - That is the Shin-Keisei and there is a school for the mentally handicapped along that line near Yabashira and it is the only one in the northern Chiba. I used to use that line regularly and many of the young handicapped people using the train were not physically or mentally capable of using the train unassisted, however, many were using the train without supervision and their assistance came in the form of JR staff helping them on the train. I did see quite a few incidents of passengers being terrorised by out of control handicapped kids.

I was a little baffled by this story until I read JayJayE's official medical differentiation between "retards" and "nutters". I now feel more confident and better equipped to tell the difference next time I ride the trains, thanks!

A crime that saved their lives, LITERALLY!!!

Don't use the word "retard" --> they say "mentally challenged"

Many people have mental hardships or are feable minded, roaming aimlessly thru life, working the same job, the same train until death.

I bet 90-100% of these people got to see the eclipse while you missed it working. -So whose the nutter?

cases like that is very hard to handle....most especially if mental dis-order person and his parents living in the same roof...everyday punch may experience from mentally ill....which is very difficult and a nightmare...an elder person being punch...

Sad story, it sounds like they didn't have much of a choice. Could they have had him institutionalized, is that even an option in Japan?

Doesn't Japan have a mental hospital or institution hidden somewhere within the country..? Japan has many 'mental clinics' though...I wonder what those mental clinics meant when translated in English. Psychologist/Psychiatrist?

sigh Another case of aged parents killing an abusive adult child. This is twice in as many weeks, am I correct? Tragic, tragic, tragic.

Japan needs a political reinvention followed by years of hard, expensive and painful restructuring to achieve what the people will inevitably need.

Hear, hear! Though I would argue the political reinvention should merely be a catalyst for change. You can't legislate a new social consciousness, but you can get the ball rolling and start people thinking while implementing new policies.

It's very hard for me to bring this to the fault of the parents. We're they offered or had available services that would be able to give proper attention to their son? If not, they weren't left with much choice. Like it is said, "Better to be standing before 12 than carried by 6." I agree with that 100%.

Don't use the word "retard" --> they say "mentally challenged"

"They" are the same fools who make words taboo for no good reason other than "they" have nothing better to do. "Retard" may have been the proper word to describe his condition or it may not be. However, terms like mentally challenged or physically challenged (or whatever people arbitrarily decide not to be offended by nowadays) are useless fluff to describe what they were in the first place. It's like calling a dead person "life challenged." Meaningless.

i hope these parents won't have to go to jail ... they did it to protect themselves, not like those crazy young parents who abuse their young children and kill them.. It must have been very very hard for these parents and they've already suffered more than enough.

JayJay, you could just as easily say it nicely as say it like Eric Cartman. Forget taboo and hew to the golden rule and you will be perceived as being a decent person. As it is, I feel sorry for people who have received care from someone with as little sensitivity as you are showing.

And Icewind, you make the case for convenience of language. Why not call people what they want to be called? I mean, why not? If you do not know what that is, then think about what you would like to be called. I am just betting that would not be retard or nutter. There must be some epithet applicable to you that, while true, would anger you. I wonder what it is.

I do agree with your little kotowaza, though. I feel bad for the parents. For convenience, let's just call them murderers to avoid confusion, though. I think it is meaningless to call them parents myself.

If not, they weren't left with much choice. Like it is said, "Better to be standing before 12 than carried by 6." I agree with that 100%