A 37-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing her 12-year-old daughter to death at their home in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, police said.
The slaying occurred Monday after the police had warned a local child counseling center Friday that the mother may have been neglecting her three children.
The woman, whose name is being withheld pending investigation of her mental status, claimed her daughter had "stabbed herself," the police said.
They suspect she stabbed her daughter in the stomach with a kitchen knife shortly before 1 a.m. Monday.
The girl was spotted lying by the front door of their house and the police recovered a 16-cm kitchen knife from the basket of a bicycle nearby.
The mother, who lived with her daughter and two sons, aged 7 and 13, was hospitalized from September to November 2010 for fear of causing harm to herself or other people, the police said. The three children stayed at a foster home for about a year until last summer, neighbors said.