A 49-year-old woman had been arrested after camera footage showed that she had been adding dishwashing detergent to her husband and son’s tea, local police said.
The unusual family affair reportedly took place last Saturday at an apartment in Aichi Prefecture’s Chita City, where the woman, Masami Watanabe, lived with her 46-year-old husband and 11-year-old son.
After feeling an abnormal taste while drinking his tea for some time, the husband set up a camera in the kitchen, Japanese media reported. His hunch proved to be right when footage showed his wife adding a substantial amount of dishwashing detergent in the PET bottles of tea in the fridge, from which the son and the husband usually drink.
The husband contacted police with the footage, leading to his wife’s arrest.
The woman has reportedly denied the accusations, telling police that she has no recollections of the incident.
© Japan Today
28 Comments
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commanteer
Nothing says your Mom loves you like her poisoning your tea. Sheesh. At least it wasn't fatal.
Mike L
Run out of sugar?
Speed
Sounds like attempted murder albeit a slow one. My coffee tasted a little strong this morning. Hmm.....
Harry_Gatto
Would have been much worse had she used bleach.
Disillusioned
Oh, yeah! Love thy family! However, knowing the situation in Japanese families, these two guys never do a flipping thing for themselves and the mother and wife is just the kitchen and washing slave. She would never receive any appreciation for her work and more than likely, only be scolded for failing to achieve the expectations of her husband and son. I'm not condoning her choice of revenge, but I fully understand her motivation.
Cosmos1
I don't
Daniel Naumoff
Make her chug half a gallon. Time to teach those distressed household wives how to behave properly!
smithinjapan
"...telling police that she has no recollections of the incident."
Future Abe's cabinet member! Seriously, though... are people going to rush to her defence and talk about stress and delayed PPD and what not? Or can we finally just admit women can be psychos, too.
Ron Barnes
maybe the family was foul mouthed and needed their mouths flushed with soapy water
Mirai Hayashi
why call the police? Why not just confront her and ask why she's putting soap in their tea?
Cosmos1
Daniel Naumoff
"Mirai Watanabe"
When a mother tries to poison her husband(?) and a child(!), the best course for the father, whose main priority is to ensure the safety of his offspring, to not try to engage a distressed person, which is capable of much insanity (if that stunt with the tea was not enough), and thus to secure the situation better call professionals of securing the situations. People usually do not go subduing rabid animals when the children are in the vicinity. Of course, forgive the comparison.
Dango bong
its on tape you cad!! think of a better excuse
thepersoniamnow
Disillusioned
What if the guy was a poor husband giving all his cash to his wife, no sex since they were dating, he's not allowed a credit card or cash, and she also doesn't wanna see his mug around the house?
Andy
Japan is the only country I know of where such an asinine excuse who actually be taken seriously by the courts and justice system. Bravo Japan, Bravo.
Strangerland
I'm watching the news right now, and they left a pretty big piece of information out of this article - the man and woman were divorced, but still living together.
This piece of information definitely adds a lot of context.
Goodlucktoyou
i always buy organic healthy detergent so i guess I'm ok.
Strangerland
It's impressive that you 'fully understand' her motivation, considering that the police don't even know what it is, and that it hasn't been reported here. Also considering you were able to 'fully understand' it without the fairly significant item of information regarding the fact that they were divorced though still living together.
You are an extremely impressive fellow, and if you aren't already working for a police force solving their crimes, you most definitely should be.
San_Diegan
LoL @ StrangeLand and Disis.silly,... Disillusioned who was being facetious, right?
sir_bentley28
A picture is worth 1000 words, but a video.......you can't deny that! What a selfish woman. I hope the husband and the child sook medical treatment.
Strangerland
For dish detergent? I'd be surprised if it's toxic, seeing as it is used for cleaning the things we eat off of. I'm sure all of us have ingested some at some point.
kohakuebisu
If they are divorced, that should read "ex-husband".
C'mon posters. Regardless of what you think about gender relations in Japan, they do not justify you poisoning other people, one of them a child! This woman deserves no sympathy.
that person
Sometimes Disillusioned should just refrain from joining the conversation. Sorry that your life is so miserable in Japan.
Monozuki
Sounds like the couple's relationship has been significantly deteriorated. Nevertheless, a number of drink-tampering news have been around these days.
DaDude
Maybe for the husband part but she wasn't divorced from her son.
Magnus Roe
What do you mean? Practically all murder cases in the US start with an insanity plea, which is what this is.
"I was drunk" or "Can't remember" is less hilarious than "I was out of my mind for exactly 2 minutes while I butchered my neighbour."
Since the husband went to the length of setting up a camera I'm sure this wasn't the first time she's been behaving oddly.
You'd be rather hard pushed to drink much from a bottle of tea with enough bleach in it to kill you, and even then it's not like you wouldn't notice right away and it isn't particularly lethal with treatment. (Drinking milk basically)
MerleWatanabe
If they really were divorced but living together, I agree that this info adds a layer of context. But I still can't fathom why a mother would put soap in her 11 year old child's drink. It's one of those acts that's so bizarre that you start to think the mom was delusional. Poor kid.