EDITORIAL: Abandoned children

The remains of a 3-year-old girl and her 1-year-old brother were discovered last Friday in a one-room apartment in Osaka, lying close to each other. They had been abandoned by their mother, and given no food or water. We can only wonder how forlorn and agonizing their final days must have been.

The children had been dead for a month or two. Their bodies were partly skeletal. This heartbreaking case defies the imagination.

Their mother, 23, arrested the same day by the Osaka prefectural police, admitted that she wanted to escape from her parental duties and have time to herself. This is a gross case of child neglect and abuse.

Loud crying at night and screams of "Mama, mama" were reportedly heard from the room. One neighbor contacted the municipal child consultation center on three occasions from the end of March through mid-May. Center officials visited the apartment on five occasions, but received no response on the door intercom. They just posted notes and left.

The mother, a sex industry worker, had been raising the children alone following a divorce in the spring of last year. The apartment was originally privately owned, and had been rented by her employer. It was being subleased by a real estate management firm, which had no idea who actually resided there.

The reason given by the child consultation center for discontinuing its inquiries was failure to identify the apartment resident. However, officials made no effort to speak with neighbors and can hardly be said to have exhausted all avenues to ascertain the safety of the children.

The child abuse prevention law demands that reports of suspected abuse be followed up with steps to directly contact and confirm the safety of the children involved, even if that involves enlisting help from neighbors. Toward that end, consultation centers have the authority to enter residences for inspections and may also request police assistance.

In this case, such an inspection could have been performed by borrowing a passkey from the real estate management firm, with center officials and police entering the apartment. It is deplorable that two precious young lives, which could have been saved, were lost. Child consultation centers must respond with greater insight, always assuming the worst-case scenario.

In urban areas, there is no shortage of apartments like this one, where subleasing renders it difficult to tell who lives there. Among late night or early morning reports of suspected abuse, there will certainly be cases when there is not a moment to lose. However, the limited resources of the child consultation centers limit their immediate-response capabilities.

Laws must be revised so that the police, upon being contacted by a center, not only aid in on-site inspections but are also cleared to act independently to promptly confirm the welfare of children who might be in peril.

The mother in the Osaka tragedy stayed away from home for days on end, attempting to escape the realities of raising her children. She was woefully unfit as a parent and bears grave responsibility for abuse resulting in death. However, there was apparently a time when she devoted herself to the youngsters. We would like to believe that this woman was also crying out for help in her desperate isolation.

Meanwhile, though the majority of neighbors were aware of the abnormal cries and screams, only one chose to report the situation. Perhaps forming accurate judgments on potential abuse based on cries alone is difficult, but maintaining vigilance can help improve communities' chances of protecting their children. This horrific incident underscores that basic truth once again.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 4