The Nagoya District Court has sentenced a 29-year-old unemployed woman to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, after she was found guilty of disposing of the body of her newborn baby girl by burying it in the garden at her parents’ home in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, in April.
Kotomi Minagawa, who is single and lived apart from her parents, admitted that she buried the infant in the garden after giving birth at her apartment in Nagoya’s Naka Ward, Kyodo News reported. An autopsy revealed that the infant was stillborn.
Minagawa’s mother was weeding the garden when she found the baby’s remains at around 10:15 a.m. on April 18. There were no visible wounds on the remains which were wrapped in a pink towel and covered with dirt.
Minagawa’s parents told police they were not aware she was pregnant.
The court ruling did not say whether Minagawa knew who the father was or not.
© Japan Today
24 Comments
Login to comment
kurisupisu
So, the baby was stillborn?
Burying it without going through the administrative procedures was the crime then?
Larr Flint
Even in those cases they give suspended sentences?
Now I understand why there are so many cases of abandoning newborns etc.
nosuke
18?months of time no wonder many baby killers getting away with murder
BigP
Oh dear, such a light sentence.
餓死鬼
The baby was stillborn.
Yubaru
It's not the "administrative procedures", it's the improper disposal of a dead body.
Yubaru
Guess you have a hard time reading articles before making a comment huh?
GuruMick
Still shameful to be pregnant and unmarried ?
WA4TKG
Now she is free to do it again, TIJ: “This is Japan”
obladi
Whatever the backstory and whatever your views on the law, finding a baby’s remains in your garden has to really suck.
Garthgoyle
Do what again, stillbirth?
Rodney
I hope she made a ritual. Better in a family place than a conbini toilet.
Mocheake
Pretty gruesome to find any kind of body in your garden, much less a fetus.
garypen
It wasn't a fetus. It was a fully formed stillborn baby, according to the article.
If she had a miscarriage or self-induced abortion, then the remains would be a fetus.
John
It’s murder. If the baby was born in a proper hospital, she could have born normal. Woman didn’t go to hospital or medical center for the baby. So it is gross negligence causing desth, which is the same as murder.
commanteer
You seem to have information that nobody else has. Perhaps you should contact the prosecutors and judge and clue them in.
Lindsay
All babies are still born if their airway isn’t cleared.
garypen
Well, no. I don't know the specifics of J-law. But, in most US states, if gross negligence causes death, it is considered "negligent homicide" or "involuntary manslaughter", and would carry a far more lenient penalty than first or second degree murder. I imagine there are similar distinctions between murder and death caused by negligence in J-law.
However, we do not know if a hospital birth would have meant a different outcome. Many babies are born at home without difficulty. And, many babies die during or shortly after hospital births. There is no way to know for sure.
smithinjapan
Nihon: "Easy to say as a man. aye."
Not easy to say as a human being at all, actually. "The parents didn't know!" which means that only the girl and possibly her baby-daddy and some friends did, which means absolute neglect. She may have only buried the corpse but make no mistake, she killed the baby first. She could have gotten help, even though there may not be enough of it here, especially for someone so young. She still could have tried, though.
Stephen Chin
Poor woman. At least justice could have helped her. But she was punished.
Yubaru
As noted, and I second here, you obviously have access to information no one else does about this tragedy. Please share with everyone the information and how you were able to gather such information in such a short time, and the cops were not.
Yubaru
How more could "justice" have helped her? She got a suspended sentence. She broke the law.
sir_bentley28
This just lets other mothers know that they can do the came and not have to go to jail for doing this kind of dispicable thing! Also, isn't this corpse abandonment and many people get arrested for it?
Strangerland
They get arrested for it as a holding charge, until the police drop the actual charges on them.