A fire tore through a house in Owani, Aomori Prefecture, killing a 35-year-old woman, her three daughters and her nephew, police said Sunday.
The victims were identified as Michiko Mizuki; her daughters Natsumi, 6, Rio, 4, Satsuki, 1; and Mizuki's nephew, Homare Sakamoto, 4.
Mizuki's 28-year-old husband, Hiroyuki, and her mother, Miyoko, 59, were hospitalized after sustaining burns from the Saturday night fire. Mizuki's father, Tadashi, 65, was not at home at the time.
The blaze, which completely destroyed the two-story wooden house, took nearly two hours to extinguish.
A total of 10 people were in the home when the fire broke out at around 9:45 p.m., police said.
Mizuki's mother escaped by using a ladder put up by neighbors to rescue the family, while her sister, Tomoko Sakamoto, 30, brought their 87-year-old grandmother out of the burning house, according to witnesses.
Sakamoto and her son, Homare, were spending the New Year's holidays there.