Woman arrested for killing 9-year-old son in Nagoya hotel

Thursday 12th November, 01:39 PM JST

NAGOYA —

A 37-year-old woman was arrested for murder on Wednesday, after her husband called police and told them she had killed their son, police said Thursday.

Yukie Matsuura, an unemployed resident of Kobe, was arrested in a Nagoya hotel after her husband, who lived with her and their 9-year-old son in Kobe, called Hyogo police at around 10.30 a.m. He told them his wife had killed their son in a Nakamura Ward business hotel in Nagoya, and Hyogo police contacted officers in Aichi Prefecture.

Officers went to the hotel and on entering the room, found the third grade elementary school boy dead, lying on a bed. Matsuura was in the room and admitted to killing her son. She was taken into custody and later arrested for murder, police said.

Matsuura told police that she strangled her son and suffocated him with a pillow at about 3 a.m. on Monday. She was quoted as saying: “Our debts had ballooned out to about 10 million yen and I’d lost hope for our future. I killed him and was going to kill myself.”

Wire reports

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 48 Total Comments Show All

dolphingirl at 11:10 PM JST - 12th November

I doubt that the woman really intended to kill herself since most family murder-suicides are commited by males. This sounds more like infanticide apparently due to economic reasons. It's possible that this woman also had a psychiatric disorder.

flatearther: I think you are refering to my previous post. Of course a person's first reaction to the perpetrators of such horrendous murders is 'hang him', 'string 'em up', 'rot in hell', and so on. The second thing that comes to mind (well, at least my mind) is why? how the f*** could someone do something so horrendous? What I'm saying is that these are both natural reactions.
whatsgoinon at 11:13 PM JST - 12th November

In many cases where children have been killed by parents it had everything to do with Child Abuse that escalated into murder. I believe that the lack of child protection laws, or at least enforcement of those laws, the lack of foster homes and housing for children who are abused and need to be protected from their parents, and the fact that very little seems to be in place to help abused children, may actually be some of the reason that it happens more often here, if in fact, it does happen more often here.
knews at 11:41 PM JST - 12th November

Difficult as it may be to understand, there are those in Japan who feel that it is a kind of "responsibility" to take the kids with them when they decide to end things. It has a long history in Japan (and some other countries in Asia). We don't understand it and never will, but it is considered to be the right thing to do so that the child will not be a burden to others. It's hard to explain but as the "creators" of the child, parents are considered to take full responsibility including the decision to prevent any stain on the family name by leaving survivors. That's why jail sentences seem to be quite lenient here for killing family members. Strange but true. In this case, the mother failed to commit suicide but if she had succeeded , some may feel more sorry for both her and the kid. As it turned out, it's hard to sympathize with her at all.
flatearther at 11:59 PM JST - 12th November

@DolphinGirl- I actually wasn't referring to your post, I was unaware of you ever posting things like "I hope they hang her a hundred #$$$$$$ times" on this thread or any others. If you have, I apologize for overlooking it.

As far as trying to understand criminal behavior, I would recommend taking a good psychology course. It's definitely a lot more useful than casting aspersions on a victim's character. Just because a reaction may be natural doesn't make it any less offensive.

In this case, whatever her motivations, she still killed an innocent child and I don't have any sympathy. I'm sorry she had debts, but murder doesn't really absolve you of financial responsibility, does it?
Besides, she had options. She could have gotten a job.

Personally, I would prostitute myself before I murdered my own child if the situation was that dire. People who take life don't deserve sympathy from anyone. A human life is worth way more than 10 million yen.
eigonosensei at 12:52 AM JST - 13th November

Bet she was on a psychotropic drug. I'm starting to think that all J women are drugged up on something. It seems to me more than half the men and all the old farts are drunk.. the younger women are probably popping happy pills. I think the growing violence is more chemical than just societal.

Furthermore, it just seems everyone in Japan over the age of say, 17, is a selfish piece of fried rhino sphincter.
DerekJ at 01:33 AM JST - 13th November

Terrible thing to happen for sure. While I clearly agree that this is not a Japanese-specific occurrence, there are clearly cultural factors that cause it to happen the way it does in Japan. I am currently reading a collection of essays entitled The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture (ISBN 9780804832953). It's a good read so and I recommend it to anyone interested in shedding light on this type of behavior and others in Japan.
JHansen at 02:56 AM JST - 13th November

So very sad!

While debt is not just reason to kill, ever, I sadly wonder how modern society is going to confront this very international problem. One can preach about not going into debt but modern life is generally one of indebtedness.

Is modern mankind able to see the shackles that have bound him? If so are we able to act in a way to end this oppressive way of life. The fact that debt is such a problem with so many is because it is systemic and there are many people, though by far not the majorities, whom have gotten very rich at holding their fellow citizens in debt.

Perhaps we should make usury against the law.
eigonosensei at 03:18 AM JST - 13th November

What is it with Japanese and their children?? EVERY DAY at least one child is murdered by a parent.
norinrad21 at 04:40 AM JST - 13th November

Tragic
usaexpat at 07:00 AM JST - 13th November

Should've killed herself first.... nuff said
bcbrownboy at 07:03 AM JST - 13th November

I am 99.99% against the death penalty (especially in a country like Japan with its corrupt justice system), but for parents who kill their children I want to make exceptions. I don't understand why they are so lenient on these people in Japan. I feel it's the worst of the murders. Stranger murders are awful, but murdering your "loved ones" is far worse, the most awful betrayal.
trinklets2 at 08:10 AM JST - 13th November

There is such thing as bankruptcy in Japan. My ex did it before. Her reasoning is doubtful. Most Japanese don't value life at all. It could have been because of lenient penalty. Imagine being housed and fed for free and then out and about after some years. Could some kind of harsher penitence lessen this kind of deplorable crime? She could have filed for divorce, gain custody of her son and live off with a little less than 200,000 yen a month for welfare as her son is still a minor. I am right now having problems too but killing never entered my mind. There was a time when I thought of just leaving without a trace but what is the meaning of life after all? Is it just to be happy, leaving problems behind and start life as a new persona? I'm in the middle of the road yet still learning to love and to heal. I maybe self righteous but that is because I'm a Christian.
DELTA440 at 08:46 PM JST - 13th November

if it was me i woulda killed my wife for killing my boy
knews at 10:16 PM JST - 13th November

DELTA440

Gee, I'm sure that would make you feel much better. A sign that we are evolving is that we don't resort to our primitive instincts.
WhatMeWorry at 01:00 PM JST - 16th November

Should send child to a relative to live and take your own life if you're so despondent. And this isn't a Japan-specific phenomena. There have been many family murder suicides in the U.S. during this world economic crisis.