KOBE—Bruises covered the body of a 6-year-old-boy who was frequently absent from a day care facility. His mother, citing difficulties in parenting, asked local officials to place the boy under temporary protection.

But a child guidance center left the boy, Nao Hosaka, in a household that apparently became extremely violent after his uncle moved in.

Nao’s body was discovered in a suitcase left in a grassy area of Kobe’s Nishi Ward on June 22.

Police said the back of Nao’s body was covered in bruises, indicating he had been physically abused.

The Kobe city government is considering setting up a third-party committee to examine why Nao was not taken into protective care despite signs that something was terribly wrong in the home.

A number of Nao’s family members have been arrested but not over his death. They are accused of confining and assaulting Nao’s grandmother.

‘IN NEED OF PROTECTION’

The day care facility on April 24 reported to the Nishi Ward office that “Nao has bruises on his shoulders and buttocks,” according to Kobe city and the child guidance center.

The boy had been frequently absent from day care since February, about two months after his uncle, Daichi Hosaka, started living in the family’s apartment in the ward.

The ward designated Nao as a “child in need of protection,” saying that custody by a guardian would be inappropriate.

Ward officials visited Nao’s home on May 1. By that time, the bruises on his shoulders had disappeared, so the officials determined there was “no obvious abuse.”

But they did not check for the reported bruises on his buttocks.

The ward did not conduct a thorough examination of Nao at that time because it was planning a more thorough check when the boy was in protective custody, officials said.

But that never happened.

During the officials’ visit, Nao’s mother, Saki Hosaka, 34, asked them to provide temporary protection for the boy, saying she was having difficulty raising him.

The ward informed the child guidance center of her request.

The center called the home, and Nao’s 57-year-old grandmother picked up the phone. She was asked to come to the center, but she did not show up at the appointed time.

Neighbors in May reported seeing a boy they believed was Nao screaming “help me” from the veranda of the apartment.

On June 1, when ward officials visited the home, the grandmother told them, “We don’t need temporary protection (for the boy).”

The ward decided “the consultation was over” because there was no longer a request for temporary protection.

Three weeks later, Nao was found dead.

Kobe city has an agreement to share child abuse cases with the prefectural police.

But information gathered through consultations with children’s guardians is not shared because parents and guardians might cease such consultations if police are involved, according to the city.

So, Nao’s case and his mother’s plea were not shared with Hyogo prefectural police.

Ryoichi Yamano, a professor of child welfare at Okinawa University, said, “It was a big change for the boy to suddenly and frequently be absent from day care and to have bruises on his body.”

Instead of making a decision based on the family’s words, “officials in the case should have responded based on the facts of what happened,” he said.

Regarding the child guidance center’s decision not to place the boy under temporary protection, Yamano said: “The officials did not directly hear the child’s feelings. The ward could have taken the boy into temporary protection and allowed him to return home if there were no problems.”

IRON PIPE ATTACK

Six family members lived in the apartment: the grandmother, eldest daughter Saki, second son Daichi, 32, twin daughters Tomomi and Asaka, 30, and Nao.

The grandmother’s eldest son lives separately.

Police arrested the four siblings from the household on June 22.

They are suspected of confining the grandmother in the home from March to June and assaulting her with an iron pipe around June 19.

Police quoted one of the sisters as saying, “I struck my mother on Daichi’s orders.”

One of the suspects also said, “Some of the sisters had been assaulted by Daichi directly or based on his instructions,” according to the sources.

Daichi began living with the family at the house around December last year.

Police suspect Daichi may have played a role in what happened to Nao.

(This article was written by Akari Sugiyama, Kumiko Nakatsuka and Tomoya Takaki.)