Police said Wednesday they have arrested a woman for allegedly killing her newborn baby son by throwing him out of a toilet window in an apartment in Honjo, Saitama Prefecture.
According to police, Madoka Masuda, 26, Masuda was staying at her 30-year-old boyfriend's apartment when she gave birth to the child in the toilet on the evening of Jan 19, TBS reported. Immediately following the birth, police say she threw the child out of the window and left it outside to die.
Masuda's boyfriend was quoted by police as saying that he noticed something was amiss due to an unusual odor in the bathroom and looked out of the window. He saw the baby's body outside and notified the authorities.
Masuda was arrested at the scene on a murder charge.
© Japan Today
66 Comments
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Mirai Hayashi
why?
Jack DeBerry
When will people realize that if you do not want the resposibility of raising a child or cannot afford it, buy a pack of condoms, get on the pill, or keep your legs closed.
mtwildman
Take her to the 'hanging tree' and be done w/her!
gerarddo
Evil heart.
Serrano
Truly shocking.
hobart_mark
This seems to occur weekly in Japan
cramp
too bad she didn't throw herself out the window after said deed
Lowly
Awful
Tessa
Let's face it, if every person on the planet was bright and excellent about thinking things out, then most of us wouldn't have been born in the first place. Poor little baby, and poor parents too.
Tessa
Congratulations! Notice the tiny little perfectly formed fingernails (of course you did)? Just so cute.
nath
Nani kore!! Kono onna majide hidokunai!! I'm Japanese and a mom and I just don't get how you can do this to a baby that's half of you. They need to check for depression mom and dad, and postpartum depression of anyone that having/had a baby and help the mothers of Japan that is suffering from this illness because being a mother is very hard.
Yubaru
You know what sure there are "evil" and "stupid" people that do stuff that boggles the mind but I will bet you that this no longer pregnant egg-holder was neither.
I will bet you she was a typical poorly educated, as in never did anything in school in her life and literally screwed around and got herself knocked up, ignorant female that was capable of reproduction but never got or was taught about birth control in her life.
There are tons of females and males in the Japanese school system EXACTLY like them today, always late, never study, cause problems, talk back, and the list will go on and on........
Japan is just bearing the fruits of it's failures in instances like this.
It hurts me to say this, but after reading about the house they lived in and hearing about their lives, giving birth to the child and having it adopted (if this was a country that made adoption a viable choice) would have been the ideal way to go......but sadly neither of these people were fit to be parents and the baby is in a better place I would like to hope.
Elbuda Mexicano
Some people are just too stupid, too evil, what a horrible thing to do to a baby! RIP
serendipitous
Tricky to get into the mind of someone else because they are exactly that....someone else. She made a decision (whether consciously or unconsciously) and now has to live with the consequences. Some people just can't handle things and freak out. But they don't know they are going to freak out until it happens. I feel sorry for all three of them.
Fadamor
Seems to me the guy must have been zonked on either alcohol or drugs to not notice/hear the women giving labor. Maybe the woman was also zonked.
cleo
Yubaru, on the cost of childbirth - apparently the woman was a part-time worker, probably had no health insurance and so no childbirth allowance. If she'd thrown herself on the mercy of the hospital/welfare services no doubt something would have been worked out, but it sounds like neither she nor the boyfriend was all that bright, nor very good at thinking things out.
Vickysora
This is so sickening, a person like that deserves to die, or al least spend the rest of her life in prison.
Marilita Fabie-Fujisawa
Another issue of misdiagnosed mental illness presumably post natal depression or what not. I have been living here in Japan for more than 30 years and my observation with family values and ties are of the lowest. Not to mention the lack of respect for elders.
Himajin
Congratulations, Cleo and family! I became a grandma about a year and a half ago, it's great fun!
kwbrow2
Another sad day for Japanese society or lack there of. I guess on some level she wanted to be caught. Surely, she knew someone, sooner or later, would find the baby and come knocking on her door. RIP little one.
Yubaru
Notice I wrote TYPICALLY and not with complications? Also it is possible as well to make payments and not have to pay it all in one lump sum. The typical childbirth allowance is a bit over 400,000 yen I do believe and MOST if not all hospitals will charge right around that amount for the birth of a child. Depends on the hospital or if a mother goes to a private clinic which can cost more.
Dude I've had a number of kids here in Japan I know what it costs and how much out of pocket it was too. Money IS NOT a problem, things CAN and ARE worked out if necessary.
Carcharodon
Video showing the "apartment" kind of puts it in "context", if such a thing is possible.
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/ann?a=20130122-00000056-ann-soci
It's an absolute dump of a house, just like the people inside it.
Scum living in a slum.
Yubaru
You are quite wrong here, it happens no more nor no less here than other so called civilized countries, and I'll assume you mean abandoning or leaving to die new born children and not toss new born's out the window because in nearly 3 decades of living here this is a FIRST for me.
Mike Critchley
In the 20 years I've been in Japan, I've seen an increasing number of crimes that defy explanation. Crimes against children, against parents, against elders and, in the true US custom, against total strangers. But this is about the sickest, lowest, most inhuman thing I've ever heard. Something is definitely going on in Japan.
Ltrain
He should have known that she was mentally unstable...they should both be interviewed to find out what other factors are involved. This woman should not be released to live among the public. Very horrific.
nath
She murdered a family member (her own child) so her sentence will be light - a hard slap on the wrist.
smithinjapan
timeon: "Jesus... She literally threw the baby out with the bathwater..."
Not really, since the woman herself was obviously the rank and rotten bathwater.
Yubaru: "In Japan money isn't the problem, the costs for delivery and the hospital stay are typically covered by insurance,"
Not at all. If there are complications during delivery and surgery is needed, or the mother gets a C-section, most of it is covered, but otherwise you spend at least a couple of grand at any given clinic.
timeon et al.: It does seem odd that the BF didn't notice, but then again this happens all the time here (women giving birth in public or department store toilets and dumping the baby then and there, with parents saying they didn't notice their daughter was pregnant, etc.). And we don't know what the physical build of this woman was -- someone who is chubby might hide it better, and the birth itself may have been easy. Anyway, we can probably assume the BF isn't that bright, but that's it -- he seemed to call the police pretty quick when he DID clue in as to what had happened.
smithinjapan
I see there's no shortage of 'mothers-of-the-year' for 2013 so far.
Anthony: "Should this case be held as evidence that Japanese society doesn't hold life as important?"
Obviously for the most people that is not the case, thank the gods, but incidents of a mother killing her baby(ies) is happening (those that are reported, that is) more than once a week, and often three or four times a week. The causes obviously vary, but it's usually the same old: "The baby wouldn't stop crying and I got frustrated" if there's any motive stated at all.
ka-chan: "JST
Personally, I don't care. It's her baby, maybe his too. So they didn't want it. I'm much more concerned when healthy 5 and 7 year olds from a loving family are murdered than a child killed by it's own parents."
That kind of attitude is why this kind of thing is becoming more than norm than the exception in news reports. It's not like the woman got a T-shirt she didn't like and tossed it, she literally through a living human being out the window to his death. It most certainly is a parent's choice to keep the baby or not -- they can give it up for adoption if they really don't want it. There is absolutly no excuse for murder, however, nor is there an excuse for such a casual attitude as, "Who cares? They didn't want it".
Disillusioned
Motainai ne? Trailer trash should not be allowed to breed!
Mocheake
Seriously, I got a really cold chill reading that! I don't have the words to describe my feelings right now. Rest in peace, young baby.
nath
Jeez, this is just so sad. That poor baby. Rest in peace little one.
Dennis Bauer
Has a new life no value to these kind of mothers?
Anthony Ciero
Perhaps we should put this in perspective: The throwing away of newborn babies by new mothers is not something rare or unique to Japan, and it's not easy to discern the motive from what little information we have. Does this make it right or acceptable? Of course not. Can we pin the lack of population growth on the murder of newborns? Probably not. Should this case be held as evidence that Japanese society doesn't hold life as important? Of course not, and it should not be interpreted as such.
nath
I agree...
Nessie
Thanks Cleo. Always nice to have more info.
Eautaceux Janais
That's just sick. Some people shouldn't have the right to procreate.
Yuina Archer
Didn't know what to do with it? That's too weird, she and her boyfriend had 9 months (give or take) to figure it out!
cleo
According to the vernacular FNN news, the woman had told the boyfriend she had had an abortion, and he 'didn't notice' that she was still pregnant.
Masuda told the police she 'threw the baby away because she didn't know what to do with it'.
The picture of the 'apaato' on the FNN page looks more like a ramshackle prefab bungalow. Unless it's supposed to be a picture of the flats in the background.
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00239104.html
oikawa
Death penalty
Tokiyo
@ka_chan think what you want, but I think your venom is aimed at the wrong party. It wasn't like the baby could choose its fate.
ka_chan
Personally, I don't care. It's her baby, maybe his too. So they didn't want it. I'm much more concerned when healthy 5 and 7 year olds from a loving family are murdered than a child killed by it's own parents. Think about what kind of person would be created by these two dysfunctional adults in 20 years.
Shinjuku 108
Who cares about why or how the boyfriend didn't notice she was giving birth earlier etc. etc.
And her background? i.e. planned/unplanned, bad parents/upbringing etc. etc. who cares.
She threw her newborn baby out of a window and left it for dead. That should be the only piece of information worth mentioning.
So let's go ahead and (as others here so eloquently put it) put her under the jail or, better yet, drop from a window and leave for dead.
The frequency of cases like this in this country is getting ridiculous.
taj
He didn't notice? Didn't hear?
I want to read this in Japanese to see if the words used allow for the possibility that it wasn't the birth of a baby, but rather the miscarriage of a fetus, not far enough along that the guy would've noticed,...
I'm really hoping (but not hopeful) that that's the case.
tmarie
Timeon, some women are lucky and delivery is quick and nearly pain free. I had a friend who has her first and from start to finish it was less than two hours. Baby number two was not so kind.
combinibento
Jesus... She literally threw the baby out with the bathwater...
slumdog
No, this is incorrect.
timeon
in the Japanese news it says that she lied to her bf and her mother that she aborted the baby. somehow nobody realized that she has not and the belly is getting bigger, and she panicked when the baby was born and threw it away. How did the bf not notice she was giving birth in the toilet escapes my imagination
tmarie
Congrats Cleo!!
The circumstances need looking into... unmarried mother, giving birth in a toilet (didn't she have the brains to go to a hospital? Or the money?), a boyfriend who doesn't notice the woman is in labour/has given birth until the smell tells him something is amiss.....what's going on?
Unmarried means the child doesn't get any recognition by the state, no? Boyfriend not knowing anything is a sure sign that there were huge communication issues - not surprising though is it? The only thing I can see "respectful" out of this is that they didn't run off the get married because she was up the duff which is pretty much forced upon couples here. Japan needs kids and really needs to change their stance on single parents. There IS plenty of support for pregnant women here, why on earth didn't she take it?
Poor thing. RIP.
gogogo
Die in hell woman.
nzpete
The reporting here about how the boyfriend became aware of the situation is a joke, I mean, what are you going to say to her when she comes back in the lounge looking half the size? Good poo love?
Still, living in Kumagaya and this being literally down the road makes me sick.
Madhu
No words to say, the poor little boy RIP. In human and sad think that I ever read. Its so cold outside and the new born... I can not think of the situation. What sick lady and i suspect the boyfriend telling is something fishy.
Why the Govt is not putting any efforts to curb these kind of incidents. Couple of similar incidents happens in every year. Japan is well developed and organized country and it won't be so difficult to take corrective actions. It is nothing bust saving their own citizens..
I still feel sad and pain after reading this story....
Amidalism
You mean he didn't notice anything was amiss when she was giving birth in the bathroom? How long was she in there? Did she not make any noise? What about after she came out? Was she not thinner? This guy seems to have just the right amount of observation skills to join the Keystones.
fupayme
Everyday some mom does stuff like this, and we wonder why Japan's population is not growing....
WilliB
Saitama is back, and at its worst.
FPSRussia
No sympathy or excuses for this woman. Equal and fair in my opinion, I think they should put her under the prison. Such malice should not be tolerated.
nath
Future shock is here. Throw away society.
Yubaru
In Japan money isn't the problem, the costs for delivery and the hospital stay are typically covered by insurance, now if she didnt have insurance, which would also technically be against the law as well, that's a different story.
However typically speaking pretty much all costs are covered and even if they didnt have the money to pay up front, they could apply for it at their local city office.
But as usual here, there is more to the story than gets reported.
cleo
We have a new-born in the house at the moment, planned, wanted, loved and doted on by the whole extended family. So different from the fate of this little boy. He did nothing to deserve the way he was treated. Poor little man.
The circumstances need looking into... unmarried mother, giving birth in a toilet (didn't she have the brains to go to a hospital? Or the money?), a boyfriend who doesn't notice the woman is in labour/has given birth until the smell tells him something is amiss.....what's going on?
Yubaru
It's sad to say the least, I would love to be able to look into the mind of people like this at the moment they make the decision to act, because for the life of me I can't understand the why or reasons after the fact.
MeanRingo
Yup... Saitama strikes again.
ChibaChick
I just dont understand. I will never understand. i dont even know what to say. It is scary to me that people like this walk around with a complete lack of empathy and respect for human life. Its psychopathic.
Saulo Akazawa
I feel sick!!! What a horrible story. Rip poor baby.
Ms. Alexander
WTF!
Ewan Huzarmy
Didn't even get to cradle before grave . This is cold and inhuman, give this selfish lizard-brained woman prison time and make sure she's sterilized .
Geoff Gillespie
Well, that's a new low....