In a reversal of a previous court decision, a 29-year-old woman was given a suspended prison term Thursday for failing to stop her former husband from being so violent to her three-year-old son that it eventually resulted in the boy's death.
The Sapporo High Court reversed the decision by the Sapporo District Court, which acquitted Yukie Hatano of responsibility for the boy's death.
Presiding Judge Kiyokatsu Omi said as the boy's mother it was Hatano's duty to protect the boy, but she did not stop her former husband, Hitoshi Hatano, from beating him.
Hatano, a restaurant employee from Teshikaga, Hokkaido, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, suspended for four years.