The Osaka child abandonment case was a case of child abandonment involving two abandoned children in Osaka, Japan. It occurred on June 9, 2010 when Sanae Shimomura, a 23-year-old Japanese single mother in Osaka, sealed the door of her apartment shut, abandoning 3-year-old daughter Sakurako Hagi and 1-year-old son Kaede Hagi inside. Neighbors heard the children crying over many weeks until it suddenly subsided, but did not think anything more of this than simply children in a bad childhood phase. Since Shimomura did not come to work for several days, a colleague went to her place and noticed a strange smell beyond the door. When the police entered the apartment, they found the two children dead.^[1] Social workers had attempted to stop by the apartment several times over the course of the children's confinement, but never found anyone home. The apartment was in a lively, populated area, but nobody knew that the children were confined.

Shimomura was arrested on 30 July 2010.^[1] She was reported to have wanted free time for herself and was quoted as saying that she had grown "tired of feeding and bathing" her two children.^[1] She was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murders. As of 2021, Shimamura remains imprisoned.

See also

• Rie Fujii, concerning a very similar incident involving two children abandoned in an apartment in Calgary, Canada.
• Sugamo child abandonment case, a similar incident that took place in a neighborhood near Tokyo, Japan.
• Coin-operated-locker babies
• Baby hatches
• Child abandonment

References