A young couple in Aichi Prefecture arrested earlier this month on suspicion of starving their 3-year-old daughter to death were indicted Thursday on a rare charge of murder.
The Nagoya District Public Prosecutor's Office indicted Chiaki Tanigawa and his wife, Mariko, both 21, in connection with the Dec. 10 death of their daughter, Iori, who died while confined to a cardboard box in their apartment in the town of Taketoyo.
Prosecutors decided that the couple could have foreseen their daughter would die without food because she was already in an extremely weakened state at the time she was placed in the box, sources said.
It is rare for prosecutors to indict parents for murdering a child, the sources said. Criminal analysts said that prosecutors are trying to reduce the number of child abuse incidents by pressing for more severe punishment.