Tragic cases of child abuse continue despite revamped efforts by parties concerned to stop such acts. Last week, a 2-year-old girl in Sapporo died after suffering from alleged abuse and neglect from her mother and the mother's boyfriend. The victim, whose body had multiple bruises, weighed just 6 kg — half the average of a girl her age — when she was found dead at her home. It is suspected that the girl had been subjected to habitual abuse by the mother and her boyfriend, who have been arrested for alleged assault, and was not adequately fed over a long period of time.

Following the fatal abuse of a 5-year-old girl in Tokyo last year and a 10-year-old girl in Noda, Chiba Prefecture in January — both in the hands of their parents — the government has taken measures to step up the fight against child abuse, such as beefing up the functions of child welfare centers nationwide and boosting the number of child welfare officers stationed at such facilities.

Government-proposed amendments to the law to prevent child abuse and another on child welfare, which are soon expected to clear the Diet, explicitly prohibit corporal punishment of children by their parents — after many child abusers have argued that they were just trying to discipline their own children. The government also plans to review a Civil Code provision stating that people with parental authority can discipline their children "to the extent necessary" for their custody and education — deemed a factor behind a public attitude that tends to be tolerant of parents physically punishing their children — in two years after the amendments take effect next year. It is unclear, however, whether the sheer ban on corporal punishment — which carries no penalties against offenders — will have more than symbolic effect to stop child abuse.