A 55-year-old woman jumped to her death after apparently stabbing her 16-year-old son to death at their apartment on Monday, police said.
According to police, the body of the boy, Rikiya Hidaka, was found at around 3:40 p.m. in the hallway outside his 4th-floor apartment in Nishiyodogawa Ward, Fuji TV reported. Another resident found the boy's body and called police. Police said the boy had several knife wounds to his neck and body and was confirmed dead at the scene.
Rikiya lived with his mother Yuka whose whereabouts were not discovered until about 7 p.m., when she was seen near the railing on the 7th floor stairwell of a municipal housing complex about 300 meters from her apartment building. Police said her wrists appeared to have self-inflicted knife wounds. When they asked the woman her name, she jumped over the railing. She wa staken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Police said security camera footage in Hidaka's apartment building showed a woman, believed to be Hidaka, with a bloodied hand, leaving the first-floor entrance.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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Giveme_abreak
What's up with these people who wanted to kill their own flesh and blood for just a few minutes of family heated arguments??? Where is the bond and love of a family?
Nessie
More likely years of heated arguments, until that last thread snapped.
Disillusioned
Ah, but people, read between the lines here. There is no mention of the father at all. Was he an estranged father who was cut off from his son due to a lack of joint custody laws? Was he a so-called 'dead beat' father that never paid support because he could not see his son? Could these circumstances lead to financial and emotional hardship, which resulted in this woman flipping out and killing her son? Over 70% of single parents (mostly women) live in severe poverty in Japan, which must put enormous amounts of emotional pressure on them. I'm sure that fathers would be more than happy to pay a structured amount of child support if they were guaranteed joint custody and visitation to their kids. However, this is not the case in japan. Many (most) of these single mothers cut the fathers off altogether and then cry poor. Maybe I am reading too much into this particular case, but the statistics are there for the reckoning. Japan really needs to update its divorce laws. I've been battling with my ex for nearly three years to settle on a structured (and reasonable) amount of child support and to have joint custody (two weekends a month) of my kids, but it is whatever she says goes. Yet, she will cry poor at every given moment and blame me for it. I am not a dead-beat father, but I'll be damned if I'll pay ¥100,000 per month with no guarantee of seeing my kids. I have no doubt that this woman was in the same boat and just flipped out!
randomnator
So sad. RIP Rikiya, did no one see the signs of this potentially happening?
Aly Rustom
awful to keep reading about family murder/suicides
Tanukiponpon
Young mothers get a bad rep but in Japan it seems a lot of these kinds of crimes are committed by older ones. I know a 55 year old trying to deal with a 16 year old must have been really hard, buti wonder what could have gone so wrong? Rip rikiya.
Cosmos1
One of the biggest concerns many parents have about middle adolescence is that most 16-year-olds think they know everything. They struggle to accept feedback and often aren't interested in hearing constructive criticisms.
Consequently, many 16-year-olds are rude to their parents.
nath
Japan is a nation with nearly 0 understanding of psychological problems and the ramifications of suppressing (repressing?) them.
Psychiatry in Japan consists of a drive-through style meaningless doctor consultation followed by prescription of whatever medication it is the pharma Medical Representative (MR, aka salesman) decided to pitch at the doctor the last time he rolled through town.
Plus insurance does not cover counseling for most people, and probably something on the order of 90% of psychiatrists in Japan do not perform any psychoanalysis..! Houston, we have a problem.
Gaijindesu
While any killing cannot be condoned, it is especially heinous for a parent to kill her own child as this goes against the natural order of continuity of the species through your offsprings.
Yubaru
Misleading to say the least....
More like murder suicide than suicide from grief!
smithinjapan
Safety Japan. Please, people... if you MUST take your own life leave others alone. Another whack-job mother! Hope she rots in hell. RIP to the boy, who barely had a chance to live.