Nearly 60 percent of the children living in Japan’s orphanages have been abused by their father or mother, a health ministry survey says. Almost 40 percent of the children were moved into orphanages due to abuse, according to the survey, conducted in February 2013. ...

The death of a 3-year-old girl, thrown into a river by her mother in November, underscores shortcomings in the nation’s child protection system, 10 years after amendments to the child welfare law purported to fix it. Ayumi Sato, of Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture, had sought ...

Up to 13,000 people are estimated to be kept in conditions of slavery in Britain, four times higher than previously thought, officials said Saturday. The Home Office figure for 2013 includes women forced into prostitution and people forced to work in factories and fields, ...

A Osaka couple are held for allegedly starving their 3-year-old daughter to death, while a Niigata mom is suspected of throwing her daughter, also 3, off a bridge.

A 24-year-old mother in Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture, has been arrested on suspicion of killing her 3-year-old daughter by throwing her into a river. Ayumi Sato, an office worker, allegedly dropped her daughter, Miyu, from a bridge in Tsubame on Wednesday night. She has admitted ...

Welfare authorities are unable to confirm the whereabouts of 141 children who were registered with municipalities, including four infants whose cases were given high-alert status.