A profoundly disturbing article from this morning's Mainichi Daily News. I could not find it in any of the other three English language dailies in Japan and the link to the Japanese original the MDN was broken when I tried it this morning. I'll keep trying and will post anything I find that was not included in this English translation....

Woman who cut off her newborn son's private parts handed 5-year prison term

SAKAI, Osaka -- A woman accused of cutting off her newborn son's private parts in 2004 was ordered Monday to spend five years behind bars.

The Sakai branch of the Osaka District Court convicted Shizue Tamura, 27, a resident of Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, of inflicting bodily injury.

"The way she committed the crime was unprecedented, inhumane and cruel," Presiding Judge Masahiro Hosoi said as he handed down the ruling. Prosecutors had demanded an eight-year prison term.

The judge dismissed the defendant's not-guilty plea, pointing out that only she and her son were at home at the time of the incident. However, he reduced her prison term to five years, considering her unhappy childhood and the fact that she was regularly abused by her common-law husband.

Tamura cut off part of the private parts of her second son, who was then 4 months old, at her home on March 1, 2004, leaving him with severe injuries that took seven months to heal and serious after-effects, according to the ruling.

The judge asserted that the defendant directed her anger with her common-law husband at her second son, pointing out that the man broke his promise to recognize her second son as his own son and to pay the costs of bringing up the victim.

The Mainichi Daily News (Tokyo)

November 27, 2006

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/ ... 8000c.html

Can I have just five minutes with this bitch?

I have read four of the Japanese language dailies without finding a further reference to this case. I've also checked the NON-subscription part of the Kyodo news service in both Japanese and English with no results, but the story did turn up in another of the English dailies a day after the first article. I'll contintue to look for further information in Japanese (maybe with more details). In the meantime, here's a second, briefer article, though it does contain some additional information....

Mom gets five years for mutilating baby

OSAKA (Kyodo) A mother was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for mutilating her 4-month-old son by cutting off part of his genitals at their home in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, in March 2004.

Shizue Tamura, 27, admitted to the assault during the investigation, but her defense counsel said she was coerced.

The court said she slashed off the boy's testicles with a razor.

Presiding Judge Masahiro Hosoi of the Osaka District Court's Sakai branch said: "It is an outrageous, grotesque crime targeting an innocent infant. The sorrow and pain the child may suffer when he grows up and comes to know what happened is beyond imagination."

The court said Tamura hurt the boy to take revenge on the boy's father, who beat her and refused to pay child support.

The Japan Times

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 128a6.html

wonder how she would have felt if the judge would have requested that she have her (o)(o) removed and be sterilized so she could not hurt any more kids.

News from many other papers:

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