6-month-old girl drowns while in bath with mother

Drunk? 6 months baby? She needs to be arrested, sent to jail for a few years and sent to baby raising training camp.

Yeah right, I'll believe the "I was drunk" cop-out when... oh wait...THIS IS JAPAN!!!

She could have planned it, very fishy story, needs investigation big time!

Speechless...

It is a parent's responsibility to protect their child. No excuses!

So sad. As much as people enjoy drinking, there are so many problems that come from it, especially when they've had too much.

If you DON'T WANT your kid; put them up for ADOPTION.

Yeah right, I'll believe the "I was drunk" cop-out when... oh wait...THIS IS JAPAN!!!*

This could be easily verified by checking her blood alcohol levels.But that does not validate,nor excuse her story.RIP baby girl.

I could believe it. My mother-in-law would be drunk and doing stupid things with kids, while I'm trying to warn her.

It could actually be a true story. Some people get drunk and have no idea of danger.

Also, there are Japanese mother's who NO MATTER WHAT think that a child has to be bathed and its hair washed everyday.

I'm speaking as a guy who was married to a crazy woman who insisted that NO MATTER WHAT, an infant had to be bathed everyday. On the other hand, if they had a fever, no water could touch the child - even it's legs because "all Japanese know that you can't have a bath when you have a fever!"

Sorry, just realized I'm raving. But honestly, there are some women out there who have absolutely no common sense, but won't listen to a gaijin father.

I could go on.

I just hope someone isn't going to ask "Where was the father?"

Why qualify it with "women?" Common sense or lack thereof knows no gender divide. That said, this is a tragedy for which the blame rests squarely on the mother. Drunk bathing is not a good idea, drunk bathing with an infant is an even worse one. One other aspect of this is, even if you're sober, a child can drown right in front of you and it doesn't take much water at all for it to happen. Drowning people don't thrash or scream. They go under silently and unless you're very aware of the situation, you may never even suspect they're in distress. My mother tells the story of walking in a shallow pool with one of my brothers only to find he was underwater drowning. "He never made a sound," she says. No, he didn't, because he was drowning. Fortunately she was instantly alert to what was happening and averted tragedy by getting him up and out of the water.

Entirely feasible in my opinion. You might be surprised to know that people can do unbelievably stupid things at times. And couple that with the fatigue and lack of sleep perhaps that accompanies raising a 6 month old. Tragic.

Yet another unfortunate child dead as a result of a parent who couldn't handle her responsibilities. Where is the help for all these parents?

A bath at 12:30am for a 6 month old baby is weird in itself and may show the lifestyle of this particular woman.

Unfortunate she thought her circumstances would not improve.

A bath at 12:30am for a 6 month old baby is weird in itself and may show the lifestyle of this particular woman.

Or maybe an overworked mother, compelled to attend a nomikai while someone babysat for her.

What a fricken idiot! DRUNK? REALLY? I wonder if she was breast feeding while drunk too. Children have no chance...NO CHANCE to grow up here!

yawn, look at all those self-proclaimed justicars commenting here! Everybody knows what happened and knows the right punishment. It's getting old folks. Way too few info in this article to make anything out of it except for my sympathetic, heart-felt "I feel sorry for you!"

sad end to a child's life. Where is the father? Probably drunk too at some Izakaya after a long day in the office

I think the day it dawns on her that she killed her baby out of stupidity will be enough. Rehabilitation is more constructive than jail.

Such a sad waste of life, it reminds me of a story I read back in the UK newspapers about a father who got smashed and fell asleep on his couch with the baby, at some point he rolled over onto the baby in his sleep and suffocated it.

So another one. Quick and easy way to do it. Mummy never noticed the baby submerged for an extended period of time???? For me this is worse than the roof jumping mothers because its cowardly as well.

CGB Spender: "Way too few info in this article to make anything out of it except for my sympathetic, heart-felt "I feel sorry for you!"

It clearly states that she was drunk and that's not enough for you to feel anything but pity for her self-made plight? Remind me never to get in a car with you behind the wheel!

Anyway, that makes two in two days, and four babies so far this week dead at the hands of their mothers. I hope at least in this case a certain few posters will FINALLY not try to blame this on PPD or PND or any other excuse under the sun to not blame the woman and realize that it was just a stupid, selfish mother who neglected and killed her baby. Unintentional in all likelihood, but the result does not change, nor does the reason. Anyone who tries to say she is not culpable better start filing lawsuits on behalf of people 'wrongfully' imprisoned for causing accidents after drunk driving or who did something else under the influence.

There far FAR too many little babies being killed by their parents or grandparents or others these days!

What a disconsolate story! I don't think it's a good idea to drink before taking a bath. Let alone being drunk and taking a bath with your baby at dead of night. And yet, children cannot choose their parents after all.

Switching gears, if I would give the mother an inch, she was presumably working like crazy on that day in order to feed her family. And she ended up doing tub-thumping with her colleagues, yes, singing and having drinks too much after her busy work.

Nevertheless, it's too sad for words. May the baby girl rest in peace...

Iain McSwan: "I think the day it dawns on her that she killed her baby out of stupidity will be enough. Rehabilitation is more constructive than jail."

If some Ojisan got drunk and killed someone in an accident would you say that suffices as punishment? It does not, nor does it here. Maybe the mother was working her butt off, as others do and go and get drunk and do stupid things -- it does not excuse them of it by ANY means, and the bottom line is that this mom killed her baby when she decided to get drunk and still try to take care of her (in a bath, no less). Waking up, shaking it off, and having to know for every day of the rest of her life she murdered her baby is only punishment enough if it is not taken into account that the woman took a life. As it is you have to also keep in mind she took away everything the little girl would have ever been, and took the little girl from everyone around her as well.

Waking up with a hangover and otherwise feeling bad and/or stupid is just punishment when you've really done nothing besides drink in excess itself. Waking up without a job would be just punishment if you did something while drunk to lose the job, and this woman deserves nothing less than to wake up in prison and start her life without the life she gave up.

This is the stupidest way to have own child killed I have ever heard. Ever..... Got drunk and then fell asleep inside the bath with her baby, come on!!

Most of the people accusing her have never had to watch a real child for more than a few hours.

Nope. Mother of 3 alive and thriving kids here, and not once have I ever got in the bath drunk and fallen asleep with any of them. Yes. I blame the mother. Idiotic thing to do. Who bathes a baby drunk in the first place?

That said - I have also been that mother exhausted and husband nowhere in sight, lonely, depressed, and at the absolute end of my rope. That would be my guess as to the truth of all this. it seems to be the standard MO for how some J moms deal with their "burden".

@Aaron: Most of the people accusing her have never had to watch a real child for more than a few hours.

???

All of people here seem to be writing their opinions. Are you recommending mothers to be drunk and drowning their babies so that you can tell god bless drunken mother?

Where is common sense, drunk still Can hold 6 month old baby? Pity that woman yet can't hear her baby cry in that hours. What a story,?

Why she was drunk or whether or not she was depressed to induce excessive drinking doesn't matter. She was drunk and caused the loss of a life which is criminal.

@Aaron: Most of the people accusing her have never had to watch a real child for more than a few hours.

Sounds your standard of baby watching is 5 hours. Don't you know if a mother has one child, she takes care of her child 365 days and many more years? Ditto with fathers.

Question: What is a real child? What are none-real child?

Sorry but my child was NEVER allowed to be the the bath alone or unsupervised. Certainly not at that age. Stop protecting what is obviously pure negligence of the mother.