Woman arrested for fatally stabbing father in Kagoshima

Tuesday 18th August, 09:12 AM JST

KAGOSHIMA —

A 22-year-old woman resident was arrested on Monday on suspicion of murder after she allegedly stabbed her father in their home in Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture.

According to police, at around 7:30 p.m., Yue Kuwabara stabbed her father, Yoichi, 50, in the chest with a kitchen knife in the living room. The victim was rushed to the hospital but died about an hour later.

Police said that Kuwabara lived together with her parents, and had gotten into an argument with her father about her usage of her mobile phone. She left the house, then returned, taking a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her father, police allege. Her mother dialed 119, reporting, “My daughter has just hurt my husband.”

News reports

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Latest 15 of 28 Total Comments Show All

smithinjapan at 03:21 PM JST - 18th August

And yet again, Japan is proving to be a country full of lunatics who can't control their emotions. Did this girl stop to think for just a moment, while she stormed outside and before coming back into the house to stab her father to death, that cell phone reception behind bars might not be so good?

How many, "I was frustrated" murders/attempted murders/beatings/rapes/kid-porn uploads/feces throwing incidents is that today now?
thepro at 04:09 PM JST - 18th August

God damnit. Move out of home, Japanese people!! All of my girlfriend's friends, around the 28-30 age range, live at home and work part-time, just spending money and living in a fantasy world. Bunch of deadbeats.
fishy at 04:24 PM JST - 18th August

after the argument with the father, she left the house... THAT was a good move... only if she used that time to cool down. sure, she was frustrated and all, but then she shouldn't have been back to the house until she was cool enough.
norinrad21 at 04:41 PM JST - 18th August

At 22 you should just move out and struggle on your own without having to rely on your parents paying your bills. Time for some of these people between 22-40 still living at home with mom or both parents to grow a pair.
biglittleman at 05:04 PM JST - 18th August

I agree norinrad21. They need some new Mama and Papa idols. They also need some more important single 20's to 40's independent living on their own idols. Maybe then the society will get a hint.
smithinjapan at 05:35 PM JST - 18th August

I agree with the sentiment that 'kids' need independence, and it would be awesome if they could mature a little from living on their own, but you gotta understand it's just not practical in a lot of cases. It's not just 'struggling' to pay rent, there would suddenly be residence tax and everything else to make it impossible.
farhaan at 05:48 PM JST - 18th August

Thank god this time it is 22 year old murderer but not 19 yrs old to who can easily escape sentence.
cleo at 06:07 PM JST - 18th August

Residence tax is based on last year's income - you're obliged to pay it whether you live with your parents or not.

"Everything else" - utilities, food, etc - is more expensive, I grant you.
womanforwomen at 11:02 PM JST - 18th August

Daughter murdering her father, mother involved in daughter's rape scene, does it happen - is this kind of moral break-down prevalent in other parts of the world? If it is happening only in Japan, then what is the root cause?
smithinjapan at 12:28 AM JST - 19th August

cleo: "Residence tax is based on last year's income - you're obliged to pay it whether you live with your parents or not."

News to me. I know of course that health care and pension and what not come out of your pay automatically, but didn't know that different members of the same household are all paying residence tax.

Anyway, it's still not practically in most cases, be it time or money-wise. I've lived on my own or with others (ie. away from family) since I was 18 and can't imagine it any other way, but that was in another place, for a part, and where rent, utilities, and living were a LOT cheaper. People saying that all these little murderers should just go out and live on their own aren't addressing the fact that while direct exchange with family members would certainly decrease, stress might not at all.

The girl simply snapped, and there's a SERIOUS problem with that in Japan. I don't think it's as much to do with families being 'confined' together as with societal expectations, societal ignorance of issues like depression and stress (among a bunch of others), and a complete lack of free time from five years of age until death. Hell, when people 'retire' what's the first thing they do? Start work three to five days a week, as well as engage in 'life long education', or hobbies that will tell them what to do. Those who DON'T engage in such things after retirement sit and home and expect their wives to tend to them. Kids are now going to juku from 7 years of age in many cases, making their 'school day' from 8:30 a.m. or so until evening or later. Companies have 'sabisu zangyo'. People don't talk to each other and many kids hide in their rooms for long periods of time, etc. etc.

I'm not excusing the woman in the least -- she deserves life in prison -- but we are seeing a HUGE increase in the inability of Japanese to cope with stress. Look on the crime section for today ONLY and you'll see in almost every case, "I was frustrated with (fill in blank with inane reason)".
TruthReveller at 01:57 AM JST - 19th August

I think people don't realize that if every child over 22 moved out in Tokyo, there probably be a shortage of housing and jobs. Like there isn't already.

I agree people should be independent, as soon as they are done school they should get a job and get out. On another note people shouldn't be allowed to take useless subjects at school that result in a useless work force.

Just my 2 cents...
Icewind007 at 03:51 AM JST - 19th August

I wonder who was paying for her phone at the time. It doesn't say. It may have been excess usage driving up the parent's bill. Or it may have been her bill and the argument was over her simply wasting too much time on the phone as opposed to other duties.

And yet again, Japan is proving to be a country full of lunatics who can't control their emotions.

Your generalization is pretty extreme. If Japan is full of lunatics, the world is overflowing. You have to open your eyes and look at the other 99% of the people around you.

So, what makes a 22 year old girl so messed up she has to kill her father for scolding her about use of her mobile phone? He must have been a real a-hole!

It's hard to even think of something to say about this... are you siding with the crazy woman who can't have enough of her phone? A woman who is still living with her parents? This doesn't even call for a yelling, much less a stabbing, unless there is far more to this than we know (and there may have been).
dasyhard at 05:47 AM JST - 19th August

Suicide was a big issue for the Japanese people who are dealing with high stress factors but now it's resorting into violence. Many decades ago Japan was rated as the lowest in crime reports but now it seems that it's climbing higher than the US. Something is triggering this high crime rate of child to parent and my guess is their standards or expectations of their offstring is set too high.
cleo at 10:00 AM JST - 19th August

now it seems that it's climbing higher than the US.

'seems' being the operative word, I think. For all crimes, Nationmaster puts Japan at #34 with 19.177/1000; the US is at #8 with 80.0645/1000. For murders committed by youths, Japan is #57, with 0.4/100,000, while the US is #14 with 11/100,000. Still got a way to go to catch up.
TokyoJake at 10:27 AM JST - 19th August

"And yet again, Japan is proving to be a country full of lunatics who can't control their emotions. Did this girl stop to think for just a moment, while she stormed outside and before coming back into the house to stab her father to death, that cell phone reception behind bars might not be so good?

How many, "I was frustrated" murders/attempted murders/beatings/rapes/kid-porn uploads/feces throwing incidents is that today now?"

Japan has the 6th lowest crime rate wirld wide.

Moderator: Comparisons to crime rates in other countries are not relevant to this discussion.