Newly arrived and living on a "danchi" estate in 1986, I would often hear the heart-rending cries of small children standing outside in the cold and darkness pleading to be let back into their homes. In the West, the worst form of punishment is to be grounded. In Japan, it is the opposite, with children living in terror of being banished from the family.
This month a 31-year-old mother in Nagoya was indicted on charges of child abuse leading to the death of her 10-year-old son, Takuya. In October 1999, Takuya died 41 hours after being bound and left naked and hungry on the family home's veranda. His parents had decided to punish him by example for bullying and stealing. (He died of shock due to blood poisoning.)
Psychologist Yuichi Hattori, who has a special interest in child abuse in Japan, was not at all surprised that only the mother was held responsible, "investigators having determined" that the father's role in the case was "limited." "In a culture where a man's word is accepted ahead of a woman's, it is the habit to blame mothers for children's behavior. Consider also the hidden principle upheld in this country: protect protagonists. Protect the perpetrator, blame the victim."