The brutal murder of 13-year-old Ryota Uemura in Kawasaki last month has highlighted the challenges of single parenthood, which often involve struggles to sustain the family and adequately support children amid ineffective public assistance.
Uemura's case has prompted groups providing support and campaigning to improve the lives of single-parent families to call for a more robust consultation service system for such households.
Uemura's parents divorced when he was attending elementary school on one of the Oki Islands in Shimane Prefecture. He was one of five children his mother was raising on her own by working at a hospital.