crime

Mother who confined daughter, forced her to eat goldfish gets suspended sentence

29 Comments

The Kurume branch of the Fukuoka District Court on Tuesday sentenced a 47-year-old woman to three years in prison, suspended for five years, for abusing her daughter in 2015.

According to the court, Yuko Ogata and her common-law husband, Takeshi Egami, confined their daughter, who was 16 years old at the time, at home in August 2015, Fuji TV reported. In addition to having been beaten, the daughter was tied to a bed, had her tongue pulled with pliers and the butt of lit cigarettes scorch her skin. Furthermore, in June 2015, the daughter was forced to consume 30 raw goldfish and a large amount of raw eggs and then told to eat what she regurgitated.

In handing down the court's ruling, the presiding judge said: “The eldest daughter has suffered a deep emotional wound from the grave mistreatment that ignored her human rights.” However, as the mother was forced by Egami to carry out the abuse and has since shown remorse, she was given a suspended sentence.

© Japan Today/AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

29 Comments
Login to comment

three people need to be b-slapped in this article: egami, the mother and that idiot judge. the daughter suffered a "deep emotional wound," but the mother gets a slap on the wrist for expressing remorse?

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Jesus, this is more than just smacking a kid upside the head, this is outright emotional and physical abuse. How can that only get a suspended sentence?

6 ( +10 / -4 )

What did the kid do to deserve such torture?

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

What did the kid do to deserve such torture?

Absolutely nothing. Nothing could be an excuse.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

I hope the daughter has left the homestead

5 ( +7 / -2 )

The mother, her lover, and the judge need the human centipede treatment.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Ugly Judgement ...

3 ( +6 / -3 )

This article is not good for my blood pressure. This punishment is an insult to the victim bah.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

The mother and the boyfriend should be made to eat 30 goldfish each and then suspended upside down for a few hours. That would be a better 'suspended' sentence!

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Remember when this story was first reported earlier this year on JT and readers were appalled? Among the comments was this:

GarthgoyleFEB. 18, 2016 - 08:56AM JST How long will they be locked up this time?

A week or two? Then back to freedom. After all, this just happened back in June so who knows what else they did in all these 7 months. Plus this is their fifth arrest. The previous arrest was for punching her and burning her tongue while she was tied with a rope. And that didn't keep them in jail so, my guess is the punishment for forcing the girl to eat some fish (probably their pets and on top killed with detergent, just sick) will be just another slap in the hand...

And there you go. Not even locked up, in the case of the mother.....

11 ( +13 / -2 )

Beign able to do that and get away with it, this is a mistake. People, being able to do that, are hazardous both to the society and it's moral values. Morever, this is evidently mental disorder, many of them. Instead of any sentence they have to be treated, but the fact that the amount of such people keeps going up worldwide, especially in Japan, makes you wonder if that was not that judge who must undergo some mental examination as well. Unless they begin a campaign on rising the public morality, upright ethical guiding mark, this will only get worse. Which at I least do not want to embrace.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Obviously: A. they are just plain old super weirdos, or B. there is a bit more to the story we don't know about....

I won't speculate but I reckon A could be the answer

0 ( +1 / -1 )

This absolutely beggars belief. If torturing your child isn't the textbook definition of family dysfunction, what is? No one can be forced to do these things, particularly to his or her own child, The woman is complicit, she and her partner should be jailed for life, and the daughter placed with relatives and given appropriate care, if it exists. What was the judge thinking? By what empirical means can one possibly measure remorse? The preoccupation of the Japanese judiciary with keeping families intact has to be reexamined.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Typical Japan and it's protection of abusive mothers. When we read about her killing the girl within the year I hope this judge remembers this -- not that he'll give a damn, obviously.

Absolutely unbelievable!

2 ( +5 / -3 )

What a d!ckhead of a judge. Shame on you!

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Yeah, she was only their child. If they had committed such disgusting offenses to their pet dog they would be in jail. The only saving grace is, the kid is now over 16 and she can leave these animals behind her. I hope she gets as far away as possible from these idiots and never has to be submitted to such abuse every again. I'd still like to see this abusive scum serve some time in jail for their behaviour though.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The judge needs to have the same treatment done to him. This is complete crap, this was her daughter and could have left at any time. This "I'm sorry" BS needs to stop.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

A parent's most basic responsibility is to protect their children. Simply saying you are sorry is unacceptable when you should have reported this lunatic to the police. They say justice is blind, but the judge in this case is blind to what actually happen to this girl.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

It's a crying shame the way some people treat their children as property instead of human beings, and an even bigger shame when the "justice system" considers them as such, SenseNotSoCommon nailed this one.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

She tortured a girl for a long time, and gets no punishment at all? That is really - bad. That poor girl must believe she has no value, she wasn't protected, and her torturer is free. I'm appalled.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Even though most judges do their best to be fair and impartial and it's a tough job I don't agree with this one. Not good at all. What he did was wrong and what the parents did to their child is absolutely disgusting. It's so sad and unfortunate when children throughout the world suffer daily from a multitude of harms. Physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse. Many children from countries around the world are routinely exposed to physical, sexual, and psychological violence in their homes and schools, in care and justice systems, in places of work, and in their communities. All of this has devastating consequences for their health and well-being now and in the future.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Maria, you are undervaluing the girl yourself. Sure she got through this tragic experience, but she is old enough to know that there exist social outcasts, not worthy of being called humans, such as her said parents, alas. She will get through it and do better than those mentally ill people ever will.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The moral of this story is if you commit an injustice act in Japan and have go to court, don't put on your best attire just put on your best academy award winning act!! Bow deeply and say I'm sorry and that will set you free!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@Daniel - how do you know? Where is this young woman now - in care? With grandparents? and if the latter, which ones, her mother's parents? It's all well and good to cross your fingers and hope for strength of spirit to win through, but unless you have information to show otherwise, this poor girl will either end up in the system, which at her age is no fun, or be returned to a dysfunctional family life, possibly without therapy, and be told to ganbatte.

Yes there are countless examples of survivors refusing to be broken, but there are just as many who remain broken and unsupported.

I hope you have some facts to prove me wrong though.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What a disgusting judge. And that common in law husband should be given life in prison since that is exactly what he took from that young girl. A chance at a normal life.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The Judge needs to be Judged.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Question here. Like in this case the sentence was suspended, if by any chance the teenage daughter still feels threatened or the abuse continues is there any human rights protection department here in Japan that she can be able to go?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites