Police arrest mother for strangling 11-year-old son in Yokosuka

Monday 29th September, 04:07 PM JST

KANAGAWA —

A 11-year-old boy was found strangled in his apartment in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Monday morning. Police said they have arrested his 40-year-old mother on suspicion of killing her son.

According to police, Hiroki Takanashi was found dead on his bed by his grandmother who lives near the apartment around 6:45 a.m. after the boy’s mother had called her to say she had killed him. The victim lived in the apartment together with his mother and father but the father had gone fishing at the time, according to police.

Police quoted the mother as saying she killed her son because she was stressed out.

Latest 15 of 31 Total Comments Show All

cuddles20008 at 01:53 AM JST - 30th September

maplesugar, actually Bamboohat is right on the mark.

In this country if you are not married with children by 30 parents tell you that you have expired.

And actually parents hound their children to get married just to be rid of them, even in todays world arranged marrage and dating go on, I know of 2 cases myself where parents have arranged for their adult children to go on a date just to try and get them married off.

Age has a real stigma here.

However it does not excuse this mother for doing what she did, Father did you not see any signs here DUMBASS!!!!

I can Imagine while she was strangling him she was thinking (Your father should have taken you fishing) Oh mom was stressed out why didn`t she strangle the father.

Is there any actual parent training in this country?

cuddles
maplesugar at 02:22 AM JST - 30th September

cuddles2000, while I agree to a certain extent that there is more pressure for people to be married by a certain age here than in some other countries, that attitude is by no means universal. I know plenty of older mothers here who are happily married and happily raising children. I just don't think that we can assume that the age of the mother has any bearing on this case.
DBC at 02:44 AM JST - 30th September

This lady was not stressed she is just a killer plain and simple.
MeanRingo at 05:46 AM JST - 30th September

Four years, tops. That's all she'll get for killing her own child.
OgieDoggie at 06:00 AM JST - 30th September

It seems odd that we don't get a comment from the kids father.

Did this surprise him or did he see it comming?

And we are not given an age for his father either (was there a big gap in age between him and his wife?
serindipity at 10:50 AM JST - 30th September

And yet, another child dies at the hands of a parent. Good to see the 'one a week' average is holding up. - "Stressed out?" - Let's just simplify it and say, "Insane!" - Sad!
CavemanLawyer at 11:23 AM JST - 30th September

If 54 kids are strangled every year, one would expect an article of this kind once a week.

I appreciate your sentiments, but the fact is that the opposite would happen. Journalists cannot be bothered to tell the people what is actually happening. If anything is that common, it will get buried. Oddities sell, not the everyday.

I tried to post a statistic showing just how common this is in America (very), but it was not allowed. Again, I cite a lack of journalistic responsibility in keeping the people educated. Well, you all know how to use a search engine, so find those statistics yourself. --Cirroc
TheguyNextdoor at 11:55 AM JST - 30th September

Now the crazy's are coming down this way,....sad sad day. If you are stressed and want to harm something, harm yourself, don't need to kill your kid.
serindipity at 12:00 PM JST - 30th September

Just to prove the point, there was a 3y/o girl beaten to death by her mother in Shizuoka on Sunday. That is three in a fortnight that have been reported and there are probably one or two more that have not become national news. I can't comprehend the insanity of how a person could willfully kill their own child!
BBLeo at 01:21 PM JST - 30th September

I wonder what is the motive behind that? "Was he a good boy, or did his mother lost her plot?" Time will tell.
barfly08 at 01:32 PM JST - 30th September

"Police quoted the mother as saying she killed her son because she was stressed out."

"Stressed out" ? Anyone else wanna bet that this becomes the tag line of the year here in Japan ! Sad sad sad state of affairs. Japan has really hit rock bottom. The daily news consists of political gaffes, food scandals, and parents killing their infant children. Shameful !
memyselfI at 01:51 PM JST - 30th September

This woman was probably mentally ill before she had her son and probably made the situation much worse. Crazy people have children too !!!!
dennis0bauer at 03:15 PM JST - 30th September

i am getting stressed from these news items
almxx at 03:25 PM JST - 30th September

The police at least have a suspect, since the mother said she killed the boy. Listen kids, if mother is stressed and dad has gone fishing, get out of the house fast.
chouwa at 05:14 PM JST - 30th September

The daily news consists of political gaffes, food scandals, and parents killing their infant children. Shameful !

Well, you know what they say, "No news is good news" or "Bad news is news". But in general, human nature states that society flocks to scandal, gore, death and destruction. It is why home videos depicting streetfights, blood and scandal always hits high ratings on the web.

Fact is, good deeds and feel good stories only hit the local documentaries and commentary and often times never get known to the general public.

It is sad, but true that in most cases, only travesty brings to light the good stuff in the world; as in the case of the Japanese aid worker, Kazuya Ito, who was killed in Afghanistan. He did a lot of good and helped a lot of people in Afghanistan, and thus is the reason why so many Afghanis mourned his death and knew his name. Yet, we didn't know about it until his kidnapping and subsequent murder.

But hey, if you want good daily news, then look no further than the "Lifestyles" section of JT.