OSAKA (Kyodo) A 34-year-old woman in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, is collecting signatures to call for the creation of a new crime category to stem the soaring number of child abuse cases in Japan — abuse resulting in death or injury.
After being frustrated that many parents, whose abuse led to the death of their children, have still evaded murder charges due to investigators' recognition that they lacked murderous intent, Hiroko Narita, a company employee, said she hopes her campaign will help raise public awareness that child abuse is a felony.
She and her supporters, mainly mothers of young children, have so far collected signatures in Kanagawa and Osaka prefectures and on the Internet from more than 60,000 people, and aim to raise the figure to more than 200,000.