Couple sentenced to thirteen years for confining daughter with schizophrenia resulting in her death

From Jiji Press

March 12th 2020

OSAKA – Osaka District Court sentenced a Japanese couple to 13 years in prison on Thursday for confining their eldest daughter, who had schizophrenia, for over 10 years and letting her freeze to death.

Presiding Judge Takushi Noguchi said the parents, who faced charges including the abandoning of duties as guardians resulting in death, committed an “inhuman act that neglected the minimum dignity as a human being.”

According to the ruling, the parents began around March 2007 to confine the daughter, Airi Kakimoto, in a prefabricated hut on the premises of their house in the city of Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, and had her live naked in the building.

Around Dec. 18, 2017, the father, Yasutaka, 57, and the mother, Yukari, 55, let the daughter, then 33, freeze to death, with her death stemming mainly from malnutrition, the ruling said.

In the lay judge trial, the defense for the parents claimed their innocence, saying they kept the daughter in the hut for treatment, not for confinement.