The mother of a 5-year-old girl who died in a harrowing case of parental neglect and physical abuse now says she is determined her daughter's death will not end up being meaningless.

Yuri Funato, 27, granted an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun in the hope it will spur others who encounter children in a similar plight to act before it is too late.

Yuri started out by relating the domestic violence directed at her by then husband, Yudai, 34, and how she felt unable to escape the abusive relationship and protect her daughter, Yua.

Yua was pronounced dead on March 2, 2018, after being admitted to a hospital in Tokyo. The cause of death was determined to be septic poisoning, but it also came to light that Yua had existed in the weeks prior on a near-starvation diet at Yudai's insistence.

Both Yudai and Yuri were indicted for parental neglect resulting in Yua's death.

Yuri was found guilty in September 2019 and handed an eight-year prison term, which she is now appealing. She has divorced Yudai, who was found guilty and sentenced to 13 years in prison. His sentence has been finalized.

In its ruling, the Tokyo District Court concluded that while Yuri was under Yudai's psychological control, she acquiesced to her husband's increasingly bizarre demands of her own volition.

Yuri met with the Asahi reporter in October at the Tokyo Detention House. She said she decided to speak up in the hope her story might inspire someone in the community to act if they became aware of a child in similar distress and help save a young life.

She began by explaining how she and Yudai got together.

Yuri had divorced Yua's father and was working in Kagawa Prefecture when she met Yudai, who was working at the same company.

Yudai came across as sophisticated, having grown up in an urban area. He was knowledgeable and seemed dependable.

The pair married in spring 2016. At first, Yudai was also kind to Yua and they often played together in a park.

But around the time Yuri gave birth to a son fathered by Yudai, he began making harsher demands about disciplining Yua.

He directed his anger at Yuri when Yua failed to heed his instructions.

In August 2016, Yudai told Yuri to train Yua to immerse her face in water. Reasoning that she would be in for a long lecture if Yua did not overcome her fear of submerging her face in the water, Yuri took her weeping daughter to the bathroom and repeatedly told her, "I'm going to hold you under."

Yudai insistently told Yuri that good discipline would be good for Yua in the long run.

But on a number of occasions, he snapped at his wife, "You are stupid because you don't have proper manners."

Yuri's self-esteem began to falter and she began to feel that Yudai constantly criticized her because she was indeed stupid.

Whenever Yuri questioned anything, Yudai would arrogantly tell her, "Then give me an explanation that will convince me."

It was not unusual for Yuri to sit on her heels for two or three hours while Yudai lectured her. She was required to send him texts via the Line app to explain how she planned to change her ways.

But even when she told Yudai she understood what he was trying to say, he would doubt her, grab her jaw and shake it.

At the same time, Yudai would tell her, "I would not be saying these things to someone I hated."

Yuri did her best to be an obedient wife, but in November 2016 an incident occurred that shocked her so much she was left speechless. She saw Yudai kick Yua as if she was nothing but a soccer ball.

At Christmas that year, a neighbor who found Yua bent double outside her home phoned the authorities. It marked the first time Yua was placed in protective custody. When Yuri asked the police to also take her to the facility, an officer asked her, "Do you have any bruises?"

Yuri was left thinking that bruises were needed to confirm the existence of domestic spousal violence.

When Yuri was asked why she did not leave Yudai, she explained that he often boasted of having friends around Japan and she feared he would eventually track her down if she ran off.

"I don't think you can understand what I was going through," Yuri said. "In the past, when I watched TV programs about domestic violence cases, I often thought, 'Why didn't she flee?'"

DISTRUST OF CHILD CONSULTATION CENTERS

A child consultation center in Kagawa Prefecture placed Yua in protective custody on two separate occasions. Until the family moved to Tokyo's Meguro Ward in January 2018, officials of the center met with the family or visited their home on 30 or so occasions. But Yudai directly met with the officials on only six occasions. That meant Yuri played the main liaison role between the center and her husband.

On one occasion, Yuri asked the center about Yudai's obsession with Yua brushing her teeth. The center official told Yuri to give her husband the benefit of the doubt. But that was not the answer Yuri was looking for. She sought an explanation that would convince Yudai to get over his excessive insistence on thorough oral hygiene.

Yuri also felt a distinct disinterest on the part of a medical institution that examined Yua. The examination was a condition for allowing Yua to return to the family home. At that time, Yudai had insisted that Yua's weight needed to be strictly controlled. But Yuri did not want her daughter to go hungry so she asked if it would be all right if she mixed "konnyaku" (starch of devil's tongue) into rice. But those at the medical institution did not question her on why she felt the need to do so.

These and other exchanges led Yuri to feel that no one was serious about answering the questions she wrestled with. But after the family decided to move to Tokyo, center officials appeared to be very earnest about learning their new address.

The distrust Yuri began to harbor toward the center was reinforced when Yudai stated: "The center is only acting that way because that is their job. They are not concerned about Yua's future."

It was not until her own case came before the Tokyo District Court that Yuri learned for the first time that the police, child consultation center and other agencies had been sharing information about Yua. She learned from court documents that the Kagawa child consultation center had been told about Yuri's eating disorder from the doctor who examined her as well as the fact that center officials were aware that Yuri was under the psychological control of Yudai.

But Yuri was unaware of such information sharing when she and her family moved to Tokyo. The distrust she held toward the child consultation center extended to those at the Tokyo center who came to visit their home. She only spoke with the Tokyo officials for five minutes before sending them packing.

Twenty-one days later, Yua was dead.

In court, Yuri broke down in tears and said, "I will have to apologize to Yua for the rest of my life."

WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR

During the trial, an official with the Tokyo child consultation center testified: "We wanted to provide support to Yua and her mother. We wanted to save the family."

Hearing that, Yuri thought, "That is what I wanted to hear from the time I was in Kagawa."

After the interview, Yuri wrote a letter to the reporter that contained a message she had for society.

"I feel a sense of crisis about the lack of people handling child abuse cases who truly feel that they want to save at the same time both the victim as well as all the abusers.

"I pray that even one cute and important life can be saved and that there is no further increase of various kinds of injury in this world."