Victoria Tran

Professor Broadbent
Writing 39C
April 22, 2018
Overlooked

Labeled the Osaka abandonment case, Sanae Shinomura, a twenty-three-year-old single

mother, left her three year-old-daughter and one year-old-son to starve to death in her apartment.
Their rotting corpses were found a month after she had abandoned them by one of Shinomura’s
colleagues, who noticed a foul odor when he came by to check up on her. According to the
police report, Shinomura “got sick of feeding them and giving them baths,” so she forsook them
to go play with her new boyfriend. Their neighbor reported multiple noise complaints to the
authorities when they heard the children crying and screaming all night. Welfare officials
promptly came to check on the situation, but they only did the absolute minimum of checking up
on the children by knocking on the door. When no one answered, they too turned their backs on
the two dying children behind that door. Child abuse is a rarely spoken about problem in Japan,
so when no one answered the door, the welfare officials probably left thinking that it was just a
couple of kids being rowdy. Unfortunately, what laid behind those doors were not two rowdy
kids, but two naked dead children surrounded by trash. The death of a child is one of the
horrible consequences of child abuse and it is saddening to know that it takes the death of two
children to get people to start addressing the problem that their society has tried to keep hidden
for so long.
The Problem
Japan is regarded by
many as one of the most polite,
respectful, and friendly
countries on this Earth. This
perspective leads many people
to believe that child abuse could
not possibly be a problem in
that country. This hidden
problem in Japan’s
society/culture is slowly starting
to gain more awareness and
attention, resulting in a major
increase in the numbers of child
abuse case getting reported. In the article “Child Abuse in Japan: Current problems and future
perspectives,” Makiko Okuyama states that the statistics on child abuse in Japan does not
illustrate its nature as much as it illustrates Japan’s problem of “low social awareness of the need
to protect children.” The child abuse has always been there, but because of recent events, such
as the case earlier, that has brought sham upon the nation, there has been a rise in awareness
among the people, which is evident in the amount of child abuse getting reported.
What people are saying about the problem
While child abuse is an undiscussed problem in Japan’s society, it is being advocated
against and discussed via an alternative medium, a television drama series. Recently gaining a
lot of popularity in many countries, the Japanese tv series, Mother, is about a school teacher who
finds out that one of her students is being abused by her mother and decides to take matter into
her own hands. It became such a big hit that other countries are beginning to remake the series.
As Mother become more popular and known, the Japanese people are getting more exposure on
what child abuse is and is not. It pushes the audience to do anything they can to help a child that
they perceive is being abused both mentally and/or physically.
 The Japanese people tend to shy away from the topic of child abuse. Even after many
attempts from the government and some organizations at spreading awareness of child abuse to
the public, the Japanese population chose to close their mind to the problem. Many people do
not even know that it exists in their community. Dr. Seiji Sakai commented, “In pediatric circles
we thought there wasn’t much child abuse and that we were different from the United States
because our culture was different.” Their culture, however, did not prevent child abuse, it
masked it instead. Japan has a long history of absolute “parental authority.” This made children
the possessions of their parents and no one, including the government, could question a parent’s
way of “discipline”/ teaching their own child. This generated a culture that has a heavy
emphasis on other people not interfering with another family’s business. And resulted in people
ignoring the acts of child abuse, even when all the evidence points to it.

In Japan, the right of the family head was very strong and until
the 1860’s, when if the father unintentionally killed a child, by being
too strict or too violent, he was not questioned.
While the deep emphasis on privacy is unfavorable for government intervention on child
abuse, Akihisa Kouno argues in the article “Child Abuse and Neglect in Japan: Coin-Operated-
Locker Babies” that a strong parental authority society provided a framework for Japan’s family
structure. So, when parental authority weakened, and a lot of the younger generation left for the
cities for better job opportunities, family ties began to deteriorate, and people became more
closed off from both their family and their neighbors. Kouno claims that as family ties
diminished, child abuse became more frequent without the watchful eyes and judgement of
extended family members. Mike Tikkanen agrees with Kouno’s claim in the article “Invisible
Children Around the World.” Tikkanen states that as more nuclear family emerges, the child
bearing assistance from grandparents and other extended family members begins to disappear,
leaving most families isolated with more pressure. This increased pressure of having to raise a
child alone raises the stress level of parents and results in a higher rate of child abuse in families
who have no additional support.
Who is affected
 Scenes from Mother, 2018 Korean remake of Japanese TV series, Mother

Raising one child takes a lot of hard work and time. Families with multiple births/ many
children require parents to put in double or triple the effort and time. Therefore, parents of
multiple births are subjected to more stress and this is a contributing factor to the increase of
abuse in those types of households. In the article “Child Abuse of One of a Pair of Twins in
Japan” Masako Tanimura examines a study in Japan on the effects of multiple birth on the
frequency of child abuse. The study found that 10% of the victims who suffered from child
abuse came from a multiple birth household. (Tanimura) Child abuse seen in multiple birth
families are more evident when only one child out of the multiple births (twin, triplet, etc.) is
born or grows to develop a congenital or neonatal disease. With multiple birth children, parents
tend to compare their development to one another, expecting that they would grow both mentally
and physical at the same rate. When this expectation is not fulfilled and “the difference between
twins in their development,” (Tanimura) is noticed by the parents, the situation “encourages
favoritism, which result(s) in (the) abuse of only one twin.” (Tanimura)
In the same study of families with children of multiple births, the researchers observed
that when all the children are abused equally, it is not likely because of a disease but because of a
parent personality disorder or because of a social economic problem. Tanimura believes that the
additional stress brought on by having to look after multiple kids combined with economic
problems heightens the parents’ emotional responses and leads to the abuse of the twins/children
of multiple birth.
How is child abuse a problem in Japan?
The death of a child is one of the horrible consequences of child abuse, which can be
caused directly or indirectly by their parents. Directly, a child can die by the hands of their
parents through fatal physical injuries or neglectful treatments, such as abandonment without any
source of food. Parent-child suicide also becomes a common cause of death for children when
the economic situation becomes dire. Some parents who face a lot of stress and feel that they are
backed up into a corner will take the life of their child to prevent the future suffering of the child,
then commit suicide themselves. Indirectly, a parent can cause the death of their child when they
believe in a religion that prevents their child from getting the medical attention and care they
need. For example, a parent not allowing their child to have a blood transfusion because their
religion prohibits the ingestion of blood. Additionally, the psychological damage from abuse can
lead a child to take their own life. Not all child abuse case ends in the death of someone, but
unfortunately it does happen, because once violence is introduced, all the parent or abused child
needs is a trigger to go off.
 Survivors of child abuse are at a disadvantage in society.
They often develop mental illnesses, obtain lower academic
standings, divorce at a higher rate, and end up living a life surrounded
by crime. This indirectly affects the society as a whole, because it
results in a lower productivity level for Japan. When the productivity
level is lowered, the economy drops as well, and this chain reaction
leads to less jobs for people which will agitate the people’s economic
situation and drive more people to abuse their child in response to the
stress. Aside from the indirect costs, child abuse has many expensive
direct costs as well, that is induced by child social welfare services,
administrative costs, and medical expenses. In the article “The social
costs of child abuse in Japan” Ichiro Wada discusses Japan’s
disregard for child abuse as an important topic of discussion when his
study examines how Japan “suffers from the fatal flaw of having no
database for medical expenses related to the effects if child abuse
itself,” (Wada). It is difficult for healthcare providers to note down
signs and damages from child abuse because sometimes they do not
even know what the signs are. This is evident when The Child Abuse and Protection Law (2000)
first came out, because even though it obligates teachers, healthcare providers, and welfare
officials to be on the look out and report any signs of child abuse, many people do not because
they were not educated about what signs they should be on the look out for. “Changing the law
is one thing. Changing social traditions, which affect health and the health professions, is
another,” (Battery).
Children grows up mirroring the behavior of their parents. A parent is a model for how
the child perceives the world and themselves. That is why it is difficult for an abused child to
grow up and take on the role of a parent themselves. The
rejection and abuse that their parents subjected them to foster
an adult who desperately craves affection and “may repeat
the relationship they had with their parents when they raise
their own children,” (Ikeda). Most people who were abused
as a child do not know how to treat their own children
because they grew up learning that the way they were being
treated is normal. This mind-set results in the creation of
another perpetrator of child abuse.
Child abuse is a problem for a lot of countries around
the world. But for Japan, it is a hidden problem that is kept away from public discussion. The
Japanese people need to first know that child abuse is a problem that is happening currently in
their society. Then they can begin to address the problem by being aware of the signs of child
abuse, especially if they work in an occupation that is centered around kids. Child abuse is a
rapidly raising problem in Japan and the number of reports is going to keep raising because as
more people become aware of the problem, they will know what signs to look out for and be
more willing to report it to welfare officials.
 Work Cite
Fukuda, Setsuya. “Leaving the Parental Home in Post-War Japan: Demographic Changes, Stem-
Family Norms and the Transition to Adulthood.” www.demographic-
research.org/volumes/vol20/30/20-30.pdf.
Gough, David. “Child Abuse in Japan.” Freshwater Biology, Wiley/Blackwell (10.1111), 7 June
2007, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1475-3588.1996.tb00003.x.
Ikeda, Yoshiko. “Child Abuse and Child Abuse Studies in Japan.” Freshwater Biology,
Wiley/Blackwell (10.1111), 19 Jan. 2011,
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1442-200X.1995.tb03308.x.
Kouno, Akihisa, and Charles Johnson. “Child Abuse and Neglect in Japan: Coin-Operated-
Locker Babies.” Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics, Elsevier, 13 Jan. 2000,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0145213494001087?via%3Dihub.
Kyodo. “Mom: No Remorse for Kids' Deaths.” The Japan Times,
www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/08/01/national/mom-no-remorse-for-kids-
deaths/#.WuFNrS7wbIV.
Nagai, Michio. Social Change in Postwar Japan.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1746-1049.1969.tb00533.x.
Okuyama, Makiko. “Child Abuse in Japan: Current Problems and Future Perspectives.”
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/389d/428de4be5bc03f66e5527fdd4574b8ee63cb.pdf.
Tanimura, Masako. “Child Abuse of One of a Pair of Twins in Japan.” The Lancet, Elsevier, 26
Sept. 2003,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/014067369092975N.
Tikkanen, Mike. “Invisible Children Around the World; Japan.” INVISIBLE CHILDREN,
www.invisiblechildren.org/2017/05/20/invisible-children-around-the-world-japan/.
Wada, Ichiro. “The Social Costs of Child Abuse in Japan.” Egyptian Journal of Medical Human
Genetics, Elsevier, 12 Aug. 2014,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019074091400276X.
Watanabe, Shigeru. “Take a Look at the Recent Articles.” The Usefulness of Infrared
Spectroscopy in Examinations of Adhesive Tapes for Forensic Purposes,
www.oatext.com/Children-in-todays-Japan.php#jumpmenu3.