10-month-old girl fatally abused despite warnings given to mother

Honestly, I am tired of hearing "discipline" as the excuse. Children don't even start to show the ability to reason until around age 3. Therefore, all you can do is redirect them when they misbehave as a toddler. But this was an infant, there is just no excuse. Kudos to the store manager and customer for trying to do the right thing and shame on the authorities for dropping the ball. The mother admitted to hitting the child, what the hell more do you need to further investigate?

fatally abused

JT, why not just call it what it is: "beaten to death" or "murdered" or "killed".

Ok, I’ve been out of the child raising business for a couple of years now, have the rules changed? How do you discipline a 10 month old? And why do you discipline for crying?

Police said they warned Iwai on two occasions to stop hitting Aika.

They had an eye-witness testimony and the woman admitted to beating her. And all they did was warn her. This belief that Japan is a child-friendly country is just another myth.

Another child murdered by the parent. So sad.

Iwai admitted hitting Aika to discipline her

You can't discipline an infant because crying is the only way they can communicate at that age. The police officer should have not accepted her BS answer and arrested her on the spot.

Ah, and here I was just yesterday thinking that it'd been almost a week since the last 'mother-killing-child' incident, but here we are. Here's my suggestion to police and society: if you have to wait until a woman kills her child to realize the child should have been taken away, despite several warnings, then you need to change. The kid OBVIOUSLY should not have been with the mother. RIP, little one.

I'm glad the witness and the store manager cared enough to take action. I haven't witnessed any of this in my neighborhood but I wonder what the best course of action is. If you verbally or physically confront the mother, it might make the situation worse. Informing the police will result in only a warning, as in this case. Take the child away and that would be kidnapping. Sign a petition and try to give welfare workers the right to forcibly take away a child from a potentially abusive parent?

Warnings? Gee, I wonder why mom felt she could continue to abuse her child...

Beating her child in April for discipline?? that would mean her child was 4 months old then. At that age all they know how to do is feed, sleep, cry and pee or poo.. How do you discipline a child that has no other way of communication? What was the police officer that investigating thinking?

What is it about these people that they can't understand that "discipline" of any form is meaningless to an infant? They have no clue WHY they're getting injured, so they cry even louder. So sad and so senseless.

Well, it is time to implement the breeding license, lesson one enter the boxing and feel what your baby feels when you lose your temper!

Police: "We'll bring in social services. They'll want to investigate whether your child would be better off being raised elsewhere if there's any more signs/suspicion of abuse by you." Is this scenario that complicated to make happen?

Admission of beating by the mother and eye-witnesses. What more do you need? In order for eyewitnesses and store clerks to be motivated enough to run out and get a license plate number shows you how severe/abnormal this "disciplining" was. Shameful.

Perhaps a politician in this country could run on this platform. Pushing to strengthen social service's reach and powers. Perhaps? Probably not. They're disconnect from their constituencies.

Parenting killing children, it happens far too much in Japan, yet the government does nothing about it.

How these scumbag parents can possibly think that beating their already crying infant is going to stop them from crying more is beyond me. Can't believe that she got off with just a warning. Well I can, since this is Japan. But I can't believe that this country has no problem with just giving a warning.

and tomorrow same story i guess ....

Won't the father be arrested as well??? I think he is just as guilty watching his daughter being killed!!!

Ah, yes! The old, "beating for discipline' ploy. I see it all too often in Japan. Parents just lashing out at their kids and belting them. I saw a so-called 'mother' on the train the other day. Her daughter (8 or so) was sitting on the seat next to her and in front of me playing Nintendo and the daughter raised her leg, which touched my pants. The crazy bitch 'mother' just started waling into the poor kid. She even pinched the kid really hard in the chest. I felt like smacking here! I did tell her to calm down and not worry about it, but it didn't stop her. A few minutes later it happened again and she stated pounding on the kid again. I couldn't handle it, so I moved. But, this is not the only time I've seen it. I've a tually seen it many times. Hitting kids for any reason is just wrong! I have four kids between 30 and 4 years old and they have never ever been smacked for discipline. It is unnecessary and is the mark of an immature bullying thug with a very lazy and small mind. Social services are a joke in Japan. This woman should have been separated from the child and receiving therapy from the first incident. That is how it works in Australia. Any sign of child abuse and your kids are gone until you can prove you can handle them. The apathy of the Japanese social services has resulted in yet another child being beaten to death by a parent. Well done!

I know these stories keep happening, but I simply can not wrap my head around it. How in the world can you beat a baby?? Bigger children, OK, I don´t agree with it but I can see the concept, but babies??? So sad.

Just giving birth does not mean you can become it's mother.

Mothers beating their children sounds like there are some other problems not just the crying annoying sound but real family trouble and the mothers take it out on their children who cannot fight back.

We should have to get a license to have babies.

darknuts:

" Yes. Let's give up more of our freedoms on our quest for the perfect utopian society. "

Yeah. Sounds like another great talking point for democrat type partys everywhere. A baby board! Create another tax-payer funded bureaucracy that decides who is to have babies. Of course, the government employee unions will approve. So, psst. better keep your idea quiet.

Poor, helpless, unloved infant. RIP Akai.

Social service, child welfare, family courts in Japan simply sucks, and if there are no changes and new reforms implemented as soon as possible, it will continue.

darknuts: I was half joking; but since you mentioned freedom, what about the freedom of 10 month-old Aika Iwai? Having children is a priviledge with immeasurable long-term responsibilities. If no one abused those priviledges, then there would be no need for such a thing, but if you have to be screened and interviewed to adopt children, then why not to have your own? Why not even a quick psychiatric evaluation? Heck, you even need to be interviewed to adopt a pet in most industrialized countries. Do you want to give psychopaths like this mother the "freedom" to have as many babies as she wants only to beat them to death?

Tahoochi:

" Do you want to give psychopaths like this mother the "freedom" to have as many babies as she wants only to beat them to death? "

....and you are sure that some unionized government bureaucrat can decide accurately who will be a suitable parent and who will not? Really?

WilliB: No, but a social worker maybe... but that's not the point. My point was that if there was some way in knowing if people are suitable parents before they have kids, that information could certainly be used to reduce the number of abused children.

We should have to get a license to have babies.

Yes. Let's give up more of our freedoms on our quest for the perfect utopian society.