On Aug. 20, police arrested voice actress Shizuka Suzuike at her home in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of causing injuries that led to the death of 3-year-old Miyuki Watanabe in August 2010. At the time of her death, Miyuki had been in Suzuike's foster care for almost a year. The suspect denies abusing the girl, claiming she fell down a flight of stairs. After a long investigation the police decided that Miyuki's extensive injuries could not be explained by a fall.
Stories about the tragic deaths of children engender two types of media response. The mainstream press offers up the bare facts, while the weeklies, tabloids and morning TV news shows go deep in order to exploit any residual melodrama. According to the tabloid narrative, mostly speculative, Suzuike was a successful working mother who wanted to contribute something to society, and so she became a foster parent. But she wasn't prepared for the special challenges of a child who was raised in an institution, and eventually she snapped.
This story presumes the suspect's guilt, and the weeklies and morning news shows filled out their coverage with incidental information that would support this view: Interviews with neighbors who found Suzuike's explanation inadequate; excerpts from her blog in which she refers to Miyuki not by name but as satogo (foster child) and decides that the girl has a "dark side"; her busy professional life and sideline pursuit of a doctorate in economics. These elements form a picture of a woman who thought she could do everything.