In the case involving the death of a 10-year-old girl at her home in Noda, Chiba Prefecture last month, in which her father was arrested on suspicion of assaulting her, it has been learned that the victim earlier complained about suffering violence at the hands of her father and pleaded for help in a questionnaire given to her by her elementary school. She was once placed under protective custody by a local child welfare center, but she was eventually placed back in the care of her parents — after the local board of education handed the father a copy of her response to the questionnaire, which was supposed to remain confidential.

As in many of the past cases of fatal abuse of children, the victim's plea for help did not appear to have been taken seriously enough by the parties involved and the signs that should have set off alarms, such as her extended absence from school since the beginning of the year, did not prompt the authorities to take action to protect the girl. The process leading to her death needs to be scrutinized to see what was lacking in the response by school officials, the education board and the child welfare centers so that a lesson can be learned to make sure that other children do not suffer the same fate.

Mia Kurihara was found dead in the bathroom of her home when emergency responders rushed to the house late in the evening of Jan. 24, responding to a call to police by the 41-year-old father, Yuichiro, who was arrested the following day. The girl's mother was also arrested this week for not stopping her husband's violence against the girl.