crime

Woman held for throwing 2-yr-old daughter from 4th-floor balcony

45 Comments

Police on Saturday arrested a 31-year-old woman for allegedly throwing her two-year-old daughter from the 4th-floor balcony of their apartment in Ageoshi, Saitama Prefecture.

According to police, an eyewitness called authorities at 9:30 a.m. Saturday to report that a woman had thrown a child from the balcony. Police rushed to the scene and found the child lying on the ground.

Fuji TV reported that she remains in a coma in hospital. The girl fell a distance of about 10 meters, police were quoted as saying.

The mother, who is Chinese, was quoted by police as saying she was sorry for doing such a terrible thing, but gave no motive.

Her husband, who is Chinese, was out at the time. The couple also has a 1-year-old son who was home at the time of the incident.

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45 Comments
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kick that mum out, no excuses (ill or mentally problem)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is why I say people need to have a license to have children. You need one to drive, so why not parentage. They should also have to undergo a psychiatric exam to ensure they are mentally stable. No mother, in her right mind, would do such an terrible act without there being a mental issue there somewhere. But she would have known there was something troubling her prior to this incident. Why didn’t she seek help before trying to murder her child? This is beyond me. I have suffered severe depression for years, and I have managed to NOT try to kill my kids.

Having said that, I do believe she should be charged and committed to a psychiatric prison for the remainder of her natural life (or put to death if that is an option in Japan) for her actions. Mental issues or not, what she did was pure evil.

All the best for the little girl and I hope she makes some what of a full recovery, remote as it seems.

God bless this girl.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Its necessary to show their ethnicity, BECAUSE IT's THE TRUTH!

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

mobiledesignMay. 08, 2013 - 04:23AM JST

why is it necessary to show their ethnicity?

Because it ups the number of comments.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

why is it necessary to show their ethnicity?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Does it matter if they were Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American? No, it doesn't.

Yes it does actually - posters here are always banging on about Japanese mothers being unfit to be parents... what this shows is that is ISN'T just Japanese mothers who do this kind of thing.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I hope the kids gets better

0 ( +0 / -0 )

what a psychopath! needs to be put away for a long time

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I propose another theory; Chinese's One Child policy. So, the parent decided to give up their lttle girl for the sake of the boy.

I hope they'll get severe punishment for such barbaric act.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How many innocent kids have to die here before Japan starts to support moms here??

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

I'll go out on a limb here and proclaim that (a) this place has a higher proportion of mental chicks than I've seen elsewhere and (b) I wouldn't doubt she did this as some sort of revenge against the father, just to spite him.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

CrazedinjapanMay. 05, 2013 - 08:38AM JST

My ex suffered from postpartum depression almost two years after our was born. Treatment here is not as open or available as it should be.

It is available though. On the interenet, just search "sango utsu byou" (in kanji) and the city where you live and you can find help. The problem probably in many cases though, is that the families, especially people close to the mother such as the father, do little to support these poor mothers. Don't know if this mother was actually suffering from PPD, but if she was, she probably could have used a little more help from her husband.... not trying to defend her, just saying.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Skeeter27May. 05, 2013 - 09:49AM JST

Saitama strikes again!>

wow all of 10 comments this time before somebody remarked on this happening in Saitama.

Just a quick scan through the past 3 weeks of Japan Today crime articles this time reveals (including this incident) only one other incident in Saitama, many more in Tokyo, significantly more in Kanagawa, Chiba and Ibaraki.

I assume it's ill-informed opinion that leads to these types of posts rather than snobbery.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"The mother, who is Chinese, was quoted by police as saying she was sorry for doing such a terrible thing, but gave no motive.

"Her husband, who is Chinese, was out at the time. The couple also has a 1-year-old son who was home at the time of the incident."

REALLY?!!!! Was it necessary to point out that the people were Chinese, TWICE?!

Does it matter if they were Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American? No, it doesn't.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Dad needs to move to a ground floor stat!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

She may be mentally ill after given birth to that child. Postnatal depression was undiagnosed among Asian women. I hope the child will recover quickly without permanent damage to brain and body.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@ChibaChick

I'd say you are making excuses for this lady, and rightly so. This is a massive problem which needs to be recognised and treated properly.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

I dont know the details of this case, but I can tell what it is like to have PPD (PPI-for illness, as we are now supposed to call it). I was IN-SANE! And I had no idea. I would never have harmed my children (in my case), but I was out on the street picking fights and looking for trouble. I screamed "SCREW YOU!" at a sales girl once and threw clothes at her because she couldnt tell me why I couldnt use the changing rooms! I rammed people with my pram if they had the gall to skip in front of me in a queue. It was completely counter to my character and now I look back at those days in absolute horror of how I behaved, but at the time I had no idea at all there was anything wrong with me, other than a constant pressured feeling of blackness and anger. Luckily I had an amazing best friend who spent a lot of time with me, spotted me going downhill early and got me to get the right help. My husband was clueless - most J men are about these things I think. It doesnt get the publicity it gets in the west.

I had to fill in a form once for the ward office, after my 3rd was born, assessing my mental and emotional state. I was fine with the 3rd, but I filled the form in exactly how I felt with the 2nd to see what would come of it. Nothing. I never heard about it again. The system is definitely failing somewhere.

I am not making any excuses though, for this woman. She needs help but she also needs to face the consequences of her actions. But although she is entirely to blame, I wonder if this would have happened at all had she had the right people around her.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Kimuzukashi: it is a bit odd that it is just written that he was out but it's hard to know the full story. I will definitely try to find a support group here but since I live out in the sticks, it may all be in Japanese...all the better reason to study! I am not so worried about the mothers here either because if they want to ignore me, I know it's for the best. If they want English lessons, I'm perfectly fine with that because it is a good way to start communicating and explaining cultural differences. Hopefully I will face less discrimination than what many do. Being a Chinese woman in Japan must be very difficult and it is sad that no one was able to see the signs of her struggle. I wonder what the support for Chinese people is like in Saitama and if they will try to reach out to the community more now.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Actually I agree with the naming of the persons nationality rather the just using the usual " foreigner" label. It gives more background , for example it is most unlikely for either of them to have family here in Japan. My wife and I are both foreigners and can understand the extra pressures of living in a foreign country.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Remove the son from the family for his safety. Obviously the mother has dangerous mental issues.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sakurala - of course!! It was just the way the article said "he was out" at the time, usually if the father was working they say, at work. But if he really didn't know, how sad eh? I count down the minutes until my husband comes home every day, because some days he is the only adult interaction I have.

And good luck with the new baby too!! I am also a mother, and would advise getting as much support from other foreign women with kids as you possibly can - you will soon find, that in Japan, it is not handed on a plate to anyone, and you have to really seek it out yourself. Its still supposed that you have you family or your husbands family around to help a lot and give advice, when in reality its not possible for many women. There are some really great mothers groups around for foreign mothers in Japan, and I really recommend them - if not just for a place to vent and share experiences.

There really is a lot of discrimination towards foreigners in Japan, as you will find when you try to take your kiddy down to the local jidokan to play, and the J-moms ignore you, or worse, just want to use you as a free English teacher.

I actually think its easier for foreign women than Japanese, because we have our own little community we can enter into freely. I suspect many Japanese are much more lonely than us, who have each other to turn to.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Kimu: It is quite possible the husband was working during Golden Week...not everyone gets it off. It's also hard to know if he was aware how much she was suffering from ppd. A lot of men in Japan are expected to work long hours and he may have never seen any extreme signs. And I doubt she was in a proper state of mind to fully explain her emotional state.

I am actually happy that they stated their nationality as odd as it may seem. To me it seems that they lacked the community support. By knowing this, maybe there can be a raised awareness that foreigners need support too. I am about to become a mother myself but am not Japanese. I do feel left out sometimes but U try hard to get all the info I need in case I need support later. I am not that great at Japanese so it's hard at times. I don't know this women's full situation, but I hope it will give a push to help foreigners raising children in Japan (doubtful, I know...but one can hope)

2 ( +3 / -1 )

How sad!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Wow there are a lot of people who are clueless as to what post partum depression is. People in the throes of it are not thinking any clearer than the schizophrenic person you see taking to themselves on the streets. They don't have a clear motive, or at least not one that would be understandable to someone who isn't stuck in PPD.

This woman needs help, because when she does pull through this, and realizes she threw her kid out a window, she's going to feel pretty bad.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What saddens me most is the emphasis on her being Chinese in the media. Its still a horrendous thing to do, regardless of nationality. The fact that Japanese mothers kill, abuse, and leave their children, home (or in cars) alone every day in this country will be ignored, while the press cry "Bad gaijin mother."

What saddens me second most is the lack of responsibility put on the husband here. I can vouch for the fact, as a mother, that If I thought for one second that my husband was either struggling to raise our children, or had anger management or mental health issues, I would NOT be leaving my children alone with him. Surely, he must have had some idea that she wasn't coping very well? I don't believe this is a truly isolated incident and before this it was all sunshine and roses? Whether she was mentally ill or not, I don't know, but he was the one closest to her, and I find it hard to believe he didn't know something was wrong.

Its golden week - he almost definitely was not working - and yet he ignores his wife left home with 2 very small children, which is no easy thing, by the way, to "go out." Im assuming she or he have no family to help out nearby either? Few friends? No support? Probably a lot of racism in the local community (we all know how the Japanese feel about the Chinese.) Could not have been an easy life for her.

Im not going to take away the fact that SHE did this, entirely by herself, and that SHE solely needs to shoulder 100% of the punishment, however its never really as simple as "evil chinese mother throws daughter out of the window for no reason, other than she is evil and chinese."

3 ( +7 / -4 )

The mother obviously was in a fit of rage when throwing the daughter from the balcony, so what was the underlying reason? The family has two children, which means that they are settled in Japan and not here for a short term stay. Very likely have permanent residence as two children are still a big no- no in China particularly the main cities. The reason I mention this , is that she has committed a criminal offence and very likely will have their visa status revoked and deported. Therefore this was not a premeditated crime. She obviously was aware of what she did to her daughter, as she was apologising afterwards., so the opinion she needs psychiatric care is wrong. More like anger management is appropriate.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The other 1 year old should not be with this crazy mother any more.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Isn't this clearly attempted murder? Doesn't that land her in jail for a long time no matter what her excuse?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Mother of the week report is in! They DEFINITELY need to take away the little boy and not give the mother access to either child until she can provide a motive for what she did and seek hope or do some jail time. I hope the little girl recovers.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

It's unlikely that the little girl will recover, or even live. You stuff millions of people into tiny boxes and force them to live according to a set of social rules and customs, giving them little chance of escape, and this kind of stuff, horrible as it is, is bound to happen. So sad, what modern society is becoming.

Note I'm not excusing this behavior at all, but what happens when they throw her in jail? What's her husband going to do with their other, one year old son? How's he supposed to take care of him?

This is a horrible, no win situation for everybody involved. This is not going to end well for ANYBODY involved with this family.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

i wonder what's the point in mentioning that the couple was "chinese?"

5 ( +7 / -2 )

This is horrifying. I hope the girl recovers. Of course the mother is mentally ill - you have to be mentally ill to throw a child off a balcony.

The mother is going to have to be confined at a mental insititution and the 1-year-old son will have to be cared for by others since the father has to work.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I don't care why she did it ! The girl is only 2 years old!!! There is no reason at all for any mother or father to trow their child out of a window, 1st floor , 4th floor or whatever floor! Children are innocent!!! This child deserves the love and prayers of everyone and I do hope she pulls through!

On another note, the mother said sorry, ok but really it's not enough! Perhaps she is sick, because no one in their right mind would do this to their own child.

I am not a doctor though so I cannot say if she is sick or not.

The mothers name is not even in the article, that's strange as the mother is over 20 so she can be named....

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Saitama strikes again!

1 ( +5 / -4 )

@Bura this could be very well the case where none of this would have happened if she had gone to the doctor and sought treatment. This country is not big on psychological treatment because of social isolation or stigmatic effects one gets when noticed by people around them. Not enough information once again in this article to support any of this though.

I do have a question though, it was the girl that was tossed and not the boy , they are Chinese and there could be something to that as well.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Bura: Sometimes it is hard for a woman to realize that she is suffering from ppd. Doctors recommend having a friend monitor you and if signs show up, take you to get help. However, if she was Chinese, she may have had less of a support group than desired in a foreign country. Also, it may be a matter of pride to avoid getting help. If she was depressed, she should have got help sooner but I don't think a lot of women pull out the ppd card just for the ease of it. Sometimes it takes an incident like this to wake a person from the fog in their head to see how much they need help. I hope everyone pulls through in this case.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Underlying factors we don't know about has caused this woman to flip out and must be addressed by professionals.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Unless this woman had already been to a doctor seeking treatment, I'm not buying this post-partum stuff. Seems like a get out of jail card for every mother who assaults or kills a child. I just hope and pray the poor innocent child somehow pulls through.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

I wish we could view their mugshots like in the USA. This woman deserves the public shame.

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

Crazedinjapan, good comment. I agree.

-10 ( +1 / -11 )

Saying she's crazy or disturbed may not be too far from the truth. My ex suffered from postpartum depression almost two years after our was born. Treatment here is not as open or available as it should be. Hopefully the little girl pulls through and the mother gets the help she needs.

11 ( +14 / -3 )

What hell is wrong with some people?

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Really they should find out if she is mentaly ill and if she is they should take the boy away too... I wouldnt want her to do that to her other child too.

7 ( +12 / -5 )

The world and some of the people in it has truly gone nuts. Hope the little one will pull through.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

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