A 36-year-old mother has been arrested after confessing to strangling her two young daughters, ages 1 and 4. Police found the children dead at the family's home in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture.
The police quoted the mother, Rika Makino, as confessing Monday to the murders, saying she had grown tired of taking care of Reisa, 1, and Renoa, 4. She had planned to commit suicide afterwards, she allegedly also said.
She called her husband at work and told him that she had killed their daughters. The husband came home and alerted police, officers said.
Police officers found the dead children lying on a futon in a bedroom. The older girl, who attended kindergarten, bore signs of having been strangled, the police said. They quoted the mother as saying she strangled them with a piece of cloth.