Mother, daughters die in suspected murder-suicide leap in Kanazawa

Monday 04th August, 09:53 AM JST

ISHIKAWA —

A woman and her two young daughters died on Sunday after leaping from a 10-meter-high overpass in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. Police found a suicide note in their car parked nearby and suspect the mother jumped with both her daughters.

The woman, 36, and her two daughters, 7 and 1, were found dead in bushes about 10 meters below the overpass around noon after another driver notified police about the unoccupied car on the overpass.

According to police, a suicide note was left inside their car. The woman’s husband told police she has been suffering from an illness. Police said the woman left home with the two daughters around 6 p.m. on Saturday and didn’t return. The husband reported them missing to police on Sunday morning.

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Latest 15 of 34 Total Comments Show All

Blue_Tiger at 02:39 PM JST - 4th August

Whose to blame here? The woman was sick, yet left alone with the children anyway? The husband didn't pack her off ot a hospital at the very least?

This is terrible....
USAPatriot at 02:43 PM JST - 4th August

Blue Tiger

Too much social stigma towards mental illness. People have to suffer in silence. Suicide and taking family with you, is not frowned upon in the same manner as in the west.
oldsnake at 05:44 PM JST - 4th August

i hate to hear news like this every day here

when this irresponsible action stop in japan
Apsara at 05:54 PM JST - 4th August

Oh please. How many fathers or grandparents in Japan, or aunts, uncles etc. would actually prefer that a mother took her children with her when she committed suicide? Japanese people are human, and like humans anywhere else in the world would rather not lose almost their entire family in one go. Mothers die here in accidents or of natural causes all the time as well, and somehow the children get looked after. Mikihouse is not "on the money" with this one, Japanese society is not that "brutally cold"- I can't believe anyone here who has Japanese friends can actually say anything like that. Japanese people are just as capable of compassion as any other society, regardless of how you want to stereotype them.
usaexpat at 12:08 AM JST - 5th August

I feel for the father, his whole family and everything he works for is gone.
bamboohat at 06:26 AM JST - 5th August

Is there any social stigma for the husband? Is anybody gonna gossip about him as if he was a bad husband and father or anything like that?

or will it be more like "gee thats too bad, but at least now you get to keep your whole paycheck.."
delitachan at 06:33 AM JST - 5th August

I feel for everyone involved, including the mother. I do have to wonder why the husband didn't take action. His wife was ill, perhaps he could have done a bit more to help her out? Take her out on a romantic vacation, etc...do something, help her get treatment.

I can only imagine what the woman was feeling. She might have been terribly lonely, missed her family, etc. Such a tragedy.
Youdontknow at 09:12 AM JST - 5th August

I recently talked about this with some Japanese friends and they said it's true, that Japanese see more value in death than in living. And if you're ill...forget it! Does anyone remember the story on JT about six years ago, where a man lay dying of a heart attack, and his stone cold wife just stood there looking at him before deciding to take the dog for a walk! He survived after calling an ambulance for himself and divorced that sad b**ch! Last week, I was seriously ill and only for the 2nd time in my nine year stay in Japan. But again, my Japanese wife was very cold towards me, even though I still went to work during my illness.

This country needs a damn good kick up the rear when it comes to community, social care and being there for others. I don't claim to know what this woman went through, but my guess is that her 7 year old especially, must have been petrified! The woman would have my sympathy if she hadn't been such a selfish person and taken two innocent lives with her. My prayers go out to her husband who now has to live with this for the rest of his life...something else his wife never gave thought to.

Also, isn't it amazing how people give a lot of thought and effort to killing themselves instead of picking up the phone and calling someone for support?
Youdontknow at 09:16 AM JST - 5th August

delitachan

I do have to wonder why the husband didn't take action. His wife was ill, perhaps he could have done a bit more to help her out? Take her out on a romantic vacation, etc...do something, help her get treatment.

In all likelihood, he probably didn't even know. Japanese women are very resilient about expressing their true feelings and she probably hid this from him. As for 'romance' - once you're married with kids, forget it, they ain't interested in romance. And how could she have been 'lonely, missed her family'??? You make no sense with that statement!
delitachan at 12:32 PM JST - 5th August

Youdontknow:

Apparently you failed to read the section in the article that states the husband KNEW she was ill. If you can't find it, here it is: "The woman’s husband told police she has been suffering from an illness" Perhaps they meant illness like a cold or something, but if that was the case, I'm not sure the relevance of that fact into the newspaper article. But I'll give Japan Today the benefit of the doubt.

She was lonely means just what it is - her husband was at work all the time and she could have been lonely without another adult to talk to. Sure kids give you a sense of living, but it's not the same as talking with another adult. She could have also missed her immediate family (her mother, father, grandmother) who may be living in another prefecture. Sounds silly but small things like these add to whatever depression she was already feeling.
GW at 02:10 PM JST - 5th August

apsara

sorry but yr basically incorrect, sure there are lots of nice people in Jpn same as everywhere, but many are indeed brutally cold to each others situations, very few charitable organizations here, a few soup kitchens mainly run for non-japanese religious organizations.

Even my wife with all she has been through detests her brother who lives in another city, married with a couple kids, only reason I have seen her niece is because we met when my father in-law passed away, I have tried to nudge her into us going to visit them or invite them but no way, immediate family but its dead end.

Jpn as a society is cold for the most part, its a simple fact of being Japanese, like bullying its simply part of the culture
USAPatriot at 02:15 PM JST - 5th August

GW; Experienced the coldness my self from some Japanese, not all i might hate. Sincerly hope your wife regains her health for all your families sake.

Dont know why some Japanese are like that. My wife and i experienced it from some family members and neighbours, who even said to her you should marry Japanese. Wouldnt have anything to do with us after marriage. Charity doesn`thardly seem to exist, where is victim support, help for suicidal people.Japan has a long w ay to go. Glad i left when i did.
JapanHusker at 02:16 PM JST - 7th August

"By taking her children lives, she does not want to burden her husband with the task of bringing up the children alone. I am sure that it was a very tough decision. "

Open mouth and insert spoon until gagging sound can be heard>

It's a selfish, coward's way out. I don't think it was a very tough decision at all for her. It was probabaly much more difficult for her to come to terms with killing herself. The kids were just an easy grab as she was going over the edge.
almxx at 05:32 AM JST - 8th August

If suicide were simple there would be 100,000 times more of it.
knews at 11:03 PM JST - 8th August

Japan Husker

"It's a selfish, coward's way out..."

Remember that is your opinion based on your social upbringing. Things aren't always so simple and her upbringing was obviously different from yours. Once again, it's hard to judge without knowing the woman personally. Who knows? Maybe the father just claimed his wife had problems to cover up his own incestuous problems and she wanted to protect them from him. Or perhaps he'd been having an affair and she found out. Just speculation of course but that's the point... we can all speculate when we don't know the details. Mothers can feel an extremely close bond with their kids and taking kids to jump off an overpass together may have seemed like the best thing to do at the time. Honestly. Problem with that is it's irreversible. People do have moments where they snap so, as tempting as it is to criticize, we shouldn't.