'Devil-like' Japanese father jailed 16 years in horrific child abuse case

Mia Kurihara, 10, died on Jan 24, 2019, after being kicked, beaten, starved, deprived of sleep and made to stand for hours at a time by her father. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM GOFUNDME.COM

TOKYO - A "devil-like" Japanese father was jailed for 16 years on Thursday (March 19) in a horrific child abuse case that led to the death of his 10-year-old daughter in January last year.

The physical abuse meted out by Yuichiro Kurihara, 42, on his fourth-grade daughter Mia was so shocking that the case was addressed in Parliament and catalysed the revision of laws to ban outright the physical punishment of minors.

The verdict comes as the National Police Agency said in a report last week that a record 1,991 children under 18 years old were abused last year. This marked a 42.8 per cent jump from a year before.

In another all-time high, 98,222 minors were referred to child welfare centres nationwide, up 22.4 per cent.

In Japan, the police take action in serious child abuse cases only when it is deemed children's lives are in danger.

Of the victims, 54 died, including Mia.

Presiding judge Iwao Maeda of the Chiba District Court said, as he handed down the verdict, that Mia had been subjected to "terrible, insidious and prolonged abuse".

"The defendant may have apologised but he has not shown any remorse. His tears were not directed at the loss of his daughter, but only of his own regret," he said.

"There is no room in the court of law to make any allowances for such continuous abuse that has roots in his own selfish thoughts and hunger to exert his own dominance."

The 16-year term is one of the longest to have been meted by a Japanese court for fatal child abuse.

But it is two years short of the 18 years asked for by prosecutors, who described Kurihara as a "devil-like" father who regarded Mia as an outlet to relieve his stress.

The indictment said that Mia was kicked, beaten, starved, deprived of sleep and forced to stand for hours at a time.

She was found dead in the bathroom of their home in Noda, Chiba prefecture, on Jan 24 last year.

The defence team argued that Kurihara was but a strict disciplinarian who had gone too far.

While he agreed to having caused her death during the court hearings, he denied the specific charges, saying: "I never starved or weakened her. Neither did I keep her standing, or shower her with cold water."

He added: "What I have done to my daughter is beyond the scope of the discipline. I was looking forward to seeing her future, but I made that impossible to happen."

The tragedy cast a brutal spotlight on Japan's sclerotic bureaucracy and its inability to protect children who are at risk.

Mia, whose name bears the Chinese characters "xin ai" or "beloved", told her teachers that she was being abused at home.

But the education board in turn relayed this complaint to her abuser, who in turn got angrier and more abusive.

She was temporarily in protective custody but, after her return to her parents and despite her fears, no one from the child welfare centre thought to follow up on her case.

Mia's mother Nagisa, herself a victim of domestic violence, was last year sentenced to 30 months in prison, suspended for five years with probation, for her complicity in not raising the alarm.

She told police that she felt powerless against her husband's violence.

In another case this week, a 26-year-old woman was jailed for 10 years by the Sendai District Court for parental neglect leading to the death of her two-year-old daughter last year.

Risa Tsuchiya, a single mother, left her daughter Hinata at home alone for nine days and stayed with a male friend, saying she was mentally drained from child-rearing.

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