EDUCATION｜SOCIETY

Japan has never passed a law that prohibits leaving children in an unattended motor vehicle, known in the U.S. as Kaitlyn’s Law.

Despite increasing instances of scorching heat, Japanese parents still leave children in their cars―sometimes unintentionally, other times on purpose.

Although it is hard to believe, some parents who suffered the ultimate loss of their children confessed that they had simply forgotten their children in their car. And it happens almost every summer.

Hearing about those little ones dying in the heat makes me sick to my stomach. But there’s no law to punish irresponsible adults. And recently, it occurred again in an inhumane fashion.

Unpunished Homicide

On Sept. 5, a man and woman in their 70s left a 3-year-old girl in a vehicle on a hot day. When the girl was found 5 hours later, it was too late to save her.

Can you guess who these elderly citizens were? Grandparents struggling with memory loss? Is one of them suffering from severe dementia?

The answer is no.

As unsafe as either of these situations would be for watching children, the two adults in charge couldn’t even be excused on those grounds.

The man — Tatsuyoshi Masuda, 73 — is the head of a daycare facility, and the woman is the nursery school staffer. The vehicle was the nursery school bus.

The director picked up six children at their homes in the morning. He drove the bus with his assistant to his preschool and left the bus with five children.

The girl who hopped on the bus last was still inside, but the head of the preschool and the part-time employee overlooked her presence, turned off the engine, locked the bus, and left the parking lot.

The bus windows were covered with picture book illustrations — from outside the bus, no one could see her locked inside.

The nursery school monitors children’s attendance with an app and a whiteboard. The staffer ticked the girl’s attendance on the app during the ride. Absent children's names were on the board, but of course, it didn’t show the girl’s name: China Kawamoto.

Her teacher noticed her absence from class but assumed she was home that day. No one called the girl’s home to double-check she was there.

Five hours later, when another staff member unlocked the bus to send the children home, he found the girl collapsed on the seat. She was immediately sent to a hospital but pronounced dead from heatstroke.

She was naked on the top half of her body. Her clothes and an empty water bottle were found on the bus.

No Remorse, No Preventive Measures

Two days later, the childcare facility held a press conference after a meeting with the parents. The director explained that all of the regular drivers were out that day and he took over the driving, though he’d been in a rush to get to a doctor’s appointment.

He repeatedly mispronounced the girl’s name China as Chinatsu during the conference. He even said unapologetically, “I’m only human” and “At my age, I forget about things when I move on to the next thing.”

His smiling photos and excuses made me doubt his suitability to be the director of a nursery school; his remarks sounded more like a sociopath rather than an education professional.

The girl’s father shared his gut-wrenching feelings and accused the director of making contradicting statements: The head of the nursery promised to close the preschool when he talked with the father earlier, but at the press conference, the director declared he would keep operating the daycare with some preventive measures.

That was when other parents and nursery school staffers couldn’t hold their tears and anger. Some struggled to catch their breath and ambulances had to be called. Thirteen were sent to a hospital, and the gathering ended in chaos. With a significant public backlash, the director resigned a few days later.

It’s Murder, Not Human Error

This event broke my heart. My daughter is 4 years old. She’s drawn to any kind of vehicle out of pure curiosity. Who can blame the parents who let the girl take the bus ride when she liked it?

The Japanese government boasts of much-improved availability of daycare facilities today. But this is the reality. Nursey school staffers are often underpaid, part-time employees.

They’re too busy to call parents to confirm every absence. Even the crazy window-wrapped buses are allowed for nursery schools when septuagenarians think it’s cute.

Frighteningly, this is not an isolated incident. Last summer, a 5-year-old boy died from heatstroke after being left alone in a nursery school bus.

Another daycare trapped children in their buses twice in 2019 and 2021, and they’re still allowed to continue running their sloppy business. In these cases, other parents passing by heard the children knocking on the window from inside before it was too late.

It is said human errors are unavoidable. But would it be so unavoidable if there were laws and consequences for this kind of criminal negligence in Japan?

I wish the girl a peaceful rest, but more than anything, I want a law that can minimize the number of such horrific events.

Children must come home safely from kindergarten and daycare without a single exception.

Young humans full of future possibilities deserve well-developed welfare and dedicated caregivers. As long as this country takes children’s lives so lightly, we will not be able to prevent yet another heartbreaking incident next summer, too.

Reference:
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220908/p2a/00m/0op/020000c
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20220907-OYT1T50250/?ref=yahoo
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/ae4e00bbc86876a1f90a42fbc968db9712826454
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/af50a0a2c8dc8ff011211e32e5b593322940ea13

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