Abe Calls for Emergency Measures to Save Children from Abuse

June 15, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday called for the compilation of emergency measures to save children from abuse, following the death of a five-year-old girl who was mistreated by her parents.

At a meeting of relevant ministers at the prime minister's office, Abe said: "Many small children have lost their lives because of abuse. I want you to take the lead in drawing up thorough measures and do everything to protect children's lives."

The girl, Yua Funato, died at her home in Meguro Ward in Tokyo in March after being beaten by her father, Yudai. Tokyo police arrested the father for alleged assault on his daughter.

According to the police, the father routinely hit the girl on the face and forced her to practice writing in the very early morning almost every day. Her mother, Yuri, was also found to have mistreated the girl.

Earlier this month, the parents were arrested for allegedly abandoning their daughter and causing her to die as a result.

Participants in Friday's meeting included Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, welfare minister Katsunobu Kato, National Public Safety Commission Chairman Hachiro Okonogi and internal affairs minister Seiko Noda.

They discussed how to strengthen functions of child consultation centers across the nation.

At a press conference after the meeting, Suga voiced the government's intention to produce the emergency measures in about a month.

"We aim to ensure full information-sharing among child consultation centers and among local authorities, and stepped-up collaboration among people and institutions concerned, and promptly put these measures into action," the top government spokesman said.

Between 2016 and 2017, Yua was safeguarded twice by a child consultation center in Kagawa Prefecture, western Japan, where she and her family lived at the time. The office gave a guidance to her parents based on the child welfare act.

But the guidance was lifted in January this year, when the family moved to Tokyo.

Child consultation centers across Japan handled a total of 122,575 cases of child abuse in fiscal 2016, up by more than 10-fold from the level in fiscal 1999.

In fiscal 2015, 84 children died because of abuse, according to the welfare ministry. Jiji Press