Police said Monday they have arrested a 39-year-old woman for the alleged murder of her five-month-old baby son in Kobe.
According to police, the suspect, who has been identified as Yoriko Sugino, works as a cabin attendant for All Nippon Airways (ANA). She was on maternity leave and living with her mother, father and newborn baby in an apartment in Higashinada Ward, while the baby's father lived and worked in Tokyo, NTV reported.
Police say Sugino met her mother for breakfast on Sunday at around 10 a.m., without her son. According to police, Sugino's mother asked her where her baby was, at which point she reportedly said she had strangled her baby, NTV reported.
Sugino's mother then contacted the police and the child was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
During police questioning, Sugino was quoted by police as saying she didn't enjoy being a mother and that she started to dislike the idea of raising her baby, NTV reported.
© Japan Today
54 Comments
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gaijinfo
Well, if you don't enjoy being a mother, then sure, strangling it is always an option. I just hope you like hanging out in jail, or being unemployed the rest of your life.
nath
Poor baby.
Mirai Hayashi
Then fricken put it up for adoption you twat!
LoveNot
It seems Japan has the highest rate in the world of mothers killing their babies. Sad.
Disillusioned
Another day another infanticidal Japanese loon! I can just imagine the nut sitting there calmly when her mum asked her about the baby. "where is my grandson?" "Oh, he won't be joining us today. I strangled him!" WTF!!!!
Dror Zilberman
A lot of unable families will be happy to adope a baby some pay a lot of money for that She should be hanging for that!!!
kwbrow2
Wow!! An educated mother. She had a good job and she has a husband. She is older and presumably knows about the responsibilities of raising a child. She has supportive parents. I am blown away by this story. If she was a cabin attendant she must have a nice personality. I can't imagine what drove her to kill her own baby. Really sad. RIP little one. You deserve better.
ebisen
Kwbrow - working as a flying waitress for ANA does not mean she was educated nor that she was smart. Most probably, the reason for killing her son is that she couldn't bear leaving her high profile world traveler job and become a mother...
TimeiClic
YET again.
Yokota
Pick on somebody your own size!....
Yubaru
I saw this story on the news tonight and it is sad to say the least. Sorry about my language here but she is one selfish bitch for doing this to her child.
Maria
This is quite a bold statement, one you shouldn't make lightly. Can you name your source?
Kobe Gai
This woman has all the signs of postpartum (or post-natal) depression. PPD is fairly common and is attributed to the hormonal imbalances following childbirth. Although I am not excusing her actions, it is a medical fact and is a frequent cause of infanticide. Due to the culture of hiding mental problems and comparative lack of support in Japan for mental illness, it means this sort of incident occurs more frequently here. It is a terrible tragedy but not a simple case of an evil mother not caring for her baby and deciding to kill it.
Jannetto
huh?? Need a nice personality to be able to say "飲み物いいかがですか?” - the cynic in me agrees with ebisen, but the woman probably had post natal depression, got no help & gave up. If she didn't want to give up her jet setting life, she should have had a termination- a lot easier than finding an adoptive home in Japan, I'm sorry to say. What a mess. Wonder what granny said...
and mods, do we have to put up with language like "tw*t"??
Kobe Gai
For further information about this condition, you may want to look here: http://postpartumprogress.com/is-postpartum-depression-non-existent-in-other-cultures-the-facts
nandakandamanda
Kobe Gai, you may be right about PPD/PND, but "all the signs"?
One of the signs, or some of the signs I could agree with... but where do you find all the signs in that article?
Either way, I hate to think that mother's love is just a wave of hormones and something like the above incident is just the tide going out.
Elbuda Mexicano
Such a horrible thing to do but I can't even imagine Why she would do this!! And to her own baby!!! RIP little baby
HonestDictator
Jeez, a 5 month old baby... the grandparents I'm sure were p'oed, and I wonder how the father feels. Also there is no guarantee that the father was married to the mother. Either its worded as to seperate the actions of the mother and him or they never were married since they did not say, "her husband". Either way this is extremely disturbing.
seesaw1
This is just a case of one selfish J woman (like most of them). Shes 39 with that 'must get married & have a child' pressure from her parents. So she simply snatched a guy 'off the street' and made a baby. Then to realise ..oops, raising a baby is めんどくさい。。。。 so she killed him.
Stephen Jez
What a moron. There are people who try and try to have a baby yet this trash can not only have one, but strangle it when it's no longer convenient for them. Life sure isn't fair is it?
oyatoi
Having a docile and malleable workforce that cant say no to "tanshin funin" gives Japan an enormous cost advantage over other nations that arent prepared to sacrifice family on the altar of economic efficiency. The downside is that the fragmentation of families sometimes results in incidents such as this. Western nations would be doing both themselves and the Japanese people a huge favour if they were to quantify its value and then impose equivalent acoss the board duties on imports from Japan.
LoveNot
why Japanese women are so cruel?
Thomas Smith
I think lovenot's just stating an opinion not really taking a stab at fact... but data seems to indicate that India, then China are highest for infanticide world-wide... of 'developed/industrialized' nations, the United States, New Zealand and the UK top the lists, it saddens me to say. There are great resources for info at unicef's site and http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/primate-diaries/2011/07/22/stressing-motherhood/ http://irv.sagepub.com/content/4/4/313.abstract http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide
Kamala Brown-Sparks
KobeGal---I completely agree with you. I'm not saying that it's right for her to have killed her child, but it sounds very much like postpartum depression to me. I hate to state the obvious, but Japan has a high suicide rate. And Maria, before you ask where I got this idea from let me first say, simply search this site for the key term 33,000 suicide's a year in Japan, the rekishi (death by train suicides that frequently occur here). There isn't really a very good mental healthcare system in Japan, this statement is based on the attempts at recruiting my husband who's a therapist, and one of his co-workers who actually took a position in Japan. Again, I am NOT excusing her behavior....
Fadamor
We shouldn't muddy-up the discussion with talk of suicides. This was murder of the most heinous sort.
NYC_Samurai
Sugino’s mother asked her where her baby was, at which point she reportedly said she had strangled her baby. -Then what? Please pass the sugar?
Samantha Ueno
In economically stable situations I would say PPD is definitely made worse by the "Western" practice of taking the baby from the mother and putting it in a nursery from birth instead of skin-to-skin with mom as much as possible. Well the good news is she probably can't have any more kids.
CrazyJoe
Infanticide (killing of a baby less than 1 year old) in Japan is extremely rare in Japan now considering the population. 27 babies were killed in 2005.
bluesea67
I guess it all goes back to cultural no no of seeking help for a mental illness for fear of having a label put on you, Its a sad place to be sick. Anyway RIP little one I guess the Mother will have a life sentence as well. Once her hormones settle down and she has 8 hours of sleep..
Yubaru
I have met cabin attendants that who had such frosty personalities they could chill a warm can a beer with a look. Stuck up and arrogant to say the least.
Don't be fooled they are trained to come across as being "nice" doesnt mean that they all actually are.
AmericanForeigner
a lack of common sense and a surplus of cruelty are to blame here.
Kamala Brown-Sparks
Samantha, none of my daughters were placed in the nursery at the hospital (I've got Multiple Sclerosis, so I had to have hospital deliveries). All of them slept in our room and were breastfed. When my youngest was born my hormones did get out of whack, not in a way that caused me to want to hurt her. I did however develop terrible anxiety that she would need me and I would be asleep, literally going for several days without any sleep. Luckily for me, I'm married to a therapist and he realized that my hormones were out of whack and got me into the doctor.
****>CrazyJoeFEB. 14, 2012 - 03:15AM JST Infanticide (killing of a baby less than 1 year old) in Japan is extremely rare in Japan now considering the population. 27 babies were killed in 2005.
When I mentioned the high rate of depression, I wasn't intending to say that women were killing their babies. I meant to say that there are a lot of people who are depressed. When I was there mental health issues were generally ignored.
Yubaru
Kamala thanks for sharing that. It's all too easy sometimes to blame it on depression and there isn't enough information now to know all the reasons for this tragedy. I am quite confident however all the "wide-shows" will be talking about this ad-naseum for the next few days trying to dissect this woman's life and find a reason why some one like her would do what she did.
Ewan Huzarmy
Infanticide....suicide....patricide.... !
There seems to be more 'cides to Japan, than there are on a pair of dice.
nath
RIP
jforce
RIP. And here I was thinking we'd go a month without a horrible crime committed on a child (let alone an infant)... something is inherently wrong with this society.
Sarcasm321
Murder, plain and simple. Sounds like she was too old to have a kid and had become set in her selfish "career woman" ways. As ever, it's the innocents that suffer...
bicultural
americanforeigner, so just because you don't hear about it back home it means it doesn't exist? Don't be so naive.
Moderator: Stay on topic please.
tmarie
Another day in Japan, another dead kid. Infanticide has becomes problem - not that is wasn't traditionally - but in this day and age, there is not enough support for moms. And working moms at that. Hubby in Tokyo, her at her parents... Prob PPD and worried about the future and her job. Plenty of things could be a problem - were they trying to push her out at work? Was she pressured to have a kid? Would the company not relocate her so she could raise the baby with her husband... I have more sympathy for an older, married working mom when this happens because I don't think it was her being selfish like some of the younger moms. I think she snapped. Japan really needs to start dealing with this as it needs all the babies it can get! High depression rate and many women will look at this and it'll scare them and make them rethink having a baby.
LoveNot
I agree. And bad education and parents. She was living with her parents and Mom is making breakfast for her every morning. However, the media says that Japanese mothers want to be so perfect so when they feel they cannot be 100% perfect they kill their kids out of altruism. I am afraid now for the kid of my friends married to Japanese wives....:(
LoveNot
I researched the topic of infanticide in Japan. I think this is a topic that should be wildly discussed and a special article should be written on it by JT. Infanticide is called mabiki in Japanese. Mabiki means "weeding", taking out the unwanted. At one time until the early years of the 20th century 40% of the babies in Kyushu were killed by their mothers. It was cultural thing in Japan (for poor families). When there was no hope for a good future, mothers killed their children. Also, mothers who kill their children in Japan do not have severe punishment.
Gurukun
Disillusioned. I had the same image of the conversation as you did. Prety sick, isn't it? Some mothers just ain't....well...I'll just leave it at that. If I keep typing, I'm bound to break my keyboard!
noirgaijin
So you were living the life of an ANA cabin attendant where you capture the attention of many as you strut through airports and hotel lobbies worldwide. All of a sudden you have to be responsible for another life as your mother was for you. Not having that attention you once had is too much of a burden and you want to act as though it (the child birth) never happened. She is not the first that has committed this evil deed and as many have already indicated, not the last…
theResident
haha- People, please let AmericanForeigner stop winding you upo. He's not a real person, ignore him, stop giving him thumbs down and he WILL go away.
Dennis Bauer
Time to teach the drones some empathy!
tokyokawasaki
I blame the useless education process and curriculum in Japan. The only way to try and prevent these tragedies is through proper sex and parenting education and support awareness programs. But... T.I.J (This Is Japan) and no one in power really cares about anyone else offer than themselves...
shinaykahn
Poor chap couldn't even defend himself...
kwbrow2
@ebisen. With age comes experience and wisdom. Most of the cases we read about on Japan Today are about single mothers. Many times they have crappy boyfriends. Many times they are younger. Many times they are poorly educated. Rarely do they live with or have the support of their parents. I find this story to be atypical. Her life sounds much better than the typical stories I read, related to mom's killing their kids.
Thomas Smith
Interesting, lovenot. Thanks for the info.
Ujjwal Joshi
Poor kid, I bet he wanted to live longer just like we do. I’m a father of a son, and I feel proud. I would never ever harm my child.
Adrian Luis Maisonet
If she didn't like the thought of being a mother, then why did she get pregnant in the first place?
nath
She may have been like a number of women who envision motherhood as this beautiful fantasy and dont really make the connection with there child like they should.
She seems like she doesnt even realize that she has taken a life. The poor father.
Wurthington
And all the while... another Japanese father working for months on end away from the family. My wife and kids have moved countless times to various countries... I always made sure to keep them with me. Part of the problem is the Japanes corporate structure of constantly moving employees every two years to different positions within the company despite, quite often, that individual's lack of credentials to even do the job. I'll say it over and over... Japan's corporate culture is not condusive to a meaningful family experience. There is no balance.
602miko
Oh MY GOD!