Girl's cry for help in school questionnaire shown to abusive father before her death

due to his "intimidating demeanor" that made them "frightened."

He is scary, lets not mess with him but leave the poor girl helpless in his cruel hands. smh. Pathetic weaklings. Poor helpless girl.

education board yielded to Yuichiro Kurihara's request due to his "intimidating demeanor" that made them "frightened." you bunch of spineless ( expletive )!

What on earth were you thinking of? why didn't you call the police and make an official complaint against him? the police could have given him a warning, that if his behaviour didn't improve he would be arrested,

"wake up in the middle of the night, and kicks and beats me when I am awake" in the questionnaire her school promised would be kept "secret."

Oh boy! and yet again she was let down by people old enough, and strong enough to protect her! they failed.

Any body in the town office or education system that was directly involved with this venerable girl needs to be questioned by the police, and if and where possible, prosecuted, they and the system let her down big style. these people are not fit to be in a position of trust, they should resign or go to jail for there spineless a lack of positive actions.

You'd think the child of suspected abusive parents who even missed one day of school would warrant scrutiny. But two weeks?!

Why must a "questionnaire" be necessary?

Why couldn't she talk with someone at school, show her bruises,

and let that be evidence enough?

Why is it that there seems to be nothing but blind eyes & deaf ears, when it comes to bullying?

The whole system in place is so completely feckless.

I reiterate poor Mia, "Can't you do anything about this?"

What were they thinking? This poor girl got screwed by all the adults she was supposed to trust. The school sold her out to her father, who it appears killed her after that.

RIP

Man,

The poor little angel.I can hardly type this message thinking about what kind of life she must have had.What an absolute (sorry,there is no word to describe her father that is apt),the school and city officials are nearly as culpable as well.This truly sucks.Man,most of us have kids who sometimes get in our hair.......but this is truly evil and so is the inaction and cowardly acts that the board of education,city and school officials are guilt of doing.

Let's see...the staff is afraid of the father who is there demanding to see the questionnaire...so it makes perfect sense to show him the questionnaire which shows his daughter claiming his abuse of her...because THAT will definitely calm him down, right?

How about all involved with the release of this document lose their jobs and be open to lawsuits.

What is sorry supposed to do for the dead girl? Oh it's ok, no big deal - better luck next time. ZERO point having a "secret" questionnaire only to then make its contents known regardless of who demands it. Why would the kid who filled it out need to write a letter of consent to reveal the answers - the kid could just say what their answers were.

This seriously angers me. There is no reason a 10 year old or any child should be treated this way. Any views she holds of the world and her work ethic are a direct reflection of her family.

Furthermore, the school caved to a demanding parent? They should have never mentioned the questionnaire to the parent in the first place. They should have seen clear signs of abuse the way the father responded to the school.

The school deserves just as much blame as the parent. The city deserves as much blame as the school and the parent for not properly checking up on her.

Of course she wouldn’t respond to future questionnaires. They have shown her that it clearly isn’t private and that what she writes would have serious repercussions on her part. That little girl must have been terrified and felt she had no one to turn to. Her family, her school, and the city failed her.

Sadly, seem to be commenting more than often on such a tragic topic recently.

The culprit, her father a despicable being is the murderer - but society has to also wear the blame.

Again a broken system, a system of cultural deference, ignorance, silence and weakness allows a young child to die so brutally.

There are no excuses. None.

We all killed her - along with many before.

Horrific :(

Brainless servants.

How little thought they needed to realize that after father sees the questionary girl will be treated even worse!

How little brain they needed to come up and talk to girl to make a nice statement and give that to father. And assure her they will help if he rises hand again!

Now all they can say is sorry...

I have encountered 3 people that truly scared me here. One guy was so angry his tongue was rolling. That guy was going through my head when I read this. I would have gone to the police if it involved a child. From experience, it is hard to think when someone is that intimidating, but still, no excuse for this.

Child abuse is a worldwide problem although, it seems to have a special callousness in Japan. In the years I've lived hear I've read about too many seriously callous cases of abuse to recall them all. Kids suffocating after being put into garbage bins, kids with frostbite from being locked in bathrooms or on balconies in mid-winter, kids with multiple cigarette burns, kids being scolded with boiling water or, in this case, being thrown into a cold shower in mid-winter. These are just a few I remember. Add to this the many case I have witnessed at train stations and on trains. I saw a ten year old boy get nocked to the grown by his mother for asking for a drink on a hot summers day. I saw a mother on a train grab a large pinch of skin on her kindergarten aged daughter and twist it until she screamed because her leg touched my pants. I saw another father smack his young teenage son so hard on the head in nearly nocked him out in a family restaurant. I've also seen a high school teacher smack a kid on the head for forgetting his textbook. All this was done in the name of discipline. There are some seriously delusional ideas of what constitutes discipline in Japan. I've always said, there is just not enough love and/or respect in Japan. People do not respect themselves, which makes it impossible for them to respect others. And, due to the social issue of being a notion of 126 million strangers nobody does anything about it.

Unbelievable. What did the school officials think the point of the questionnaire was?

Indifference. Apathy. Lack of common sense. This is Japanese culture.

What is sorry supposed to do for the dead girl? Oh it's ok, no big deal - better luck next time. ZERO point having a "secret" questionnaire only to then make its contents known regardless of who demands it. Why would the kid who filled it out need to write a letter of consent to reveal the answers - the kid could just say what their answers were.

@Robotxparty- I second your post. If that ever happened to any of my family, I would go postal on this. Yes, there is plenty wrong with this school administration. THEY are definitely accountable for their lack of trust in their positions. Fire and prosecute them. I'm willing to face time in jail or deportation if this happened to my kids because they deserve it and I love them. And a bow will not do justice at all.

this makes me SO angry.

Lets share this story as much as possible. Show another side of Japan and maybe disgust and anger from around the world will shame Japan into doing better.

Why is it I am getting this sudden urge to go kick some teachers around?

I hope the cops investigate and find someway to charge these so called teachers !

Horrifically negligent. They are somewhat responsible for her death! Shame on you as a human being.

it's heartaching to see a child lose her life to societal ignorance! i taught elementary schools for 11 years and teachers are the first one to know about child abuse cases around the world not only japan! the whole noda education department and the school is responsible for the death of mia! she cried for help but no one listened! rip child!

Damn...this is heart breaking stuff! That poor girl, brave enough to ask for help and than devoured by that monster! Completely crushing!

Trust the system. We're professionals. We're experts. We make the rules because we know best. You're safe here. We'll take care of you. We know how.

The message handed out to children if they are being abused is to tell a teacher.

That is meant to mean safety, not a death sentence.

Why did not anyone help this girl before her father killed her?

The officials apologized at a press conference Thursday for conducting an act that "extremely lacked consideration," saying officials of the city's education board yielded to Yuichiro Kurihara's request due to his "intimidating demeanor" that made them "frightened."

Oh you think so? So how you think the girl would feel after you show him the letter?

Totally disguting spineless bureaucrats.

This is a national scandal. but apart from a bit of temporary handwringing no one seems that bothered.

The overwhelming lack of common sense and backbone, and the utter unprofessionalism of the weak individuals who left this child to her fate is scandalous. There should be a public inquiry. None of those involved should be working with children or the vulnerable at all.

What sort of message is this sending to children? It's hard enough to get them to open up as it is, but if adults in a position of trust continue to betray children and the vulnerable in this way the suffering will continue.

I have scanned down the reply and comments this morning, Out of the 35 posts there is only 1 person that's been thumbed down, I don't think that I've ever seen so little thumbs downs in all of the years Ive been reading the J news on here, It is over whelming and heart warming to see that we are all passionate about children's welfare, health and care. its very unfortunate that some don't see it that way in Japan.

With some of the tough sentences going lately, I hope the father never sees the light of day again. That and the stupid people that showed the questionnaire to the parents lose their jobs and get blacklisted from ever finding a job again.

Following her death, the government compiled emergency measures to tackle child abuse, including a plan to boost the number of child welfare staff nationwide by about 2,000 by fiscal 2022 from 3,253 as of April 2017.

Doesn't matter if you have an extra million child welfare staff if they are all spineless, yes-men-and-women with zero autonomy or commonsense.

As for the teachers - I expect that they will be fired (but I know that zero action will come from this). Being 'scared' is not an excuse for what they did - in fact, it just makes them look worse. They knew full-well the problems, and in typical Japanese style, chose to look the other way.

In Family Court divorce procedure in Japan, when an abducted and alienated child reaches 13 and is interviewed by a "Court Investigator" (supposedly a court psychologist of sorts) to determine the child's preferred residence (mother or father), each child is interviewed alone. HOWEVER, each parent is soon given a written report of that interview. If the child knows that this will happen then what is at play is UNDUE INFLUENCE, which undermines any claim that the child's expressed wish is authentic. If the child doesn't know this, EXACTLY THE SAME DANGER of PARENTAL 'REPRISAL' AGAINST THE CHILD that we see in this tragic case are a real possibility. Actually more so, since the alienating parent demands complete allegiance, and the parent who is alienated is prevented by law from being able to be there to protect their child.SO HOW COME the Officials in Noda City's Education Board who admitted handing a copy of a school questionnaire, (in which a third-grader wrote she had been physically abused by her father and asked teachers to help), to the father at his strong request, about a year before his arrest over her death APOLOGIZED at a press conference Thursday (Jan31) for conducting an act that "extremely lacked consideration," saying officials of the city's education board yielded to Yuichiro Kurihara's request due to his "intimidating demeanor" that made them "frightened." WHEN EXACTLY THE SAME ACT is part of normal family court procedure for the whole country, including Noda City?

@Richard that is a very long question.

spineless, yes-men-and-women with zero autonomy or commonsense

This. In Japan, rules aren't made to prevent a wrong doing. Rules are more like a set of actions from which you choose based on a given situation. If the situation is not in the "rules", Japanese people don't know what to do. This is their culture. They are proud of it. Moving on.

It is just heartbreaking that this poor girl was so alone in life, left to the heinous abuse of her father with NO-ONE willing to protect her. Imagine how alone and helpless she must have felt. Sadly, not taking action to protect bullied, battered and tortured children and women is the norm in Japan. Everyone who was aware of the situation, yet did nothing, should be in prison along with her monster of a father for their negligence and complicity. Watch, the father's sentence will not be commensurate with the horrific nature of his crimes.

Why did not anyone help this girl before her father killed her?

Most people here don't want to take any risk of getting involved in any trouble. Seen it countless times.

Heads need to roll of all those involved in Mia's request for help. No amount of apologies and bowing heads will cut it. It was very clear from an early stage Mia's life could be in danger but the system, no not the system, the people supposed to do their jobs and protect her, were totally useless and irresponsible failing to take proper action. Now all I can do is pray for the child's soul.