Overview
- Kobe City’s third-party report found that weak information sharing and differing assessments between ward staff and the child consultation center failed to trigger timely protection for a 6-year-old later found dead.
- Ward officials last saw the child on May 1, 2023 and warned the center the next day that temporary protection was needed, yet the case was treated as a general care consultation rather than an abuse response.
- Prosecutors say the mother and two aunts fatally assaulted the boy on June 19, 2023 and disposed of his body in a suitcase; a Kobe District Court verdict for the three defendants is scheduled for Jan. 14.
- Defense arguments highlight alleged coercion by an uncle whose separate trial has not begun, with the key dispute centering on whether the cohabiting defendants could defy his instructions.
- In a separate development, Ibaraki police arrested Yuki Yamaguchi, 31, on suspicion of causing death by abandoning a person in his care after he left his 2-year-old in a top-loading washing machine for about 20 minutes before calling 119; the child died of asphyxiation.