Photo/Illutration The headquarters of Osaka prefectural police (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

OSAKA--A mother has been arrested on suspicions of inducing her young daughter into a hypoglycemic state by not feeding her and claiming mutual aid money of 60,000 yen ($432) for her hospitalization, police said on July 18. 

Kasumi Nawata, 34, who works as a part-timer in Daito, Osaka Prefecture, denied the allegations.

“I did not intentionally cause my daughter to have low blood sugar," she said. "I was not trying to deceive anyone.”

Osaka prefectural police said that Nawata’s daughter, now 9, had been hospitalized 43 times since spring 2018 for hypoglycemia and other health-related conditions.

Nawata allegedly received around 5.69 million yen from three organizations, including a mutual aid association and a life insurance company.

Police are investigating the case, suspecting that she had her daughter repeatedly admitted to the hospital to obtain mutual aid and insurance money.

They said her daughter was hospitalized for six days in a hypoglycemic state after not being fed from Jan. 20 to 22.

Nawata is suspected of defrauding a mutual aid association of 60,000 yen on Feb. 2 by pretending that the hospitalization was for a natural condition. 

Although the daughter ate her school lunch on Jan. 19, she only had snacks equivalent to about two rice crackers from Jan. 20 to 22, according to investigators.

During her hospital stay, a nurse reportedly heard Nawata tell her daughter on a speakerphone call on her mobile phone, “Don’t eat, go to sleep.”

The hospital reported the conversation to a child consultation center on Feb. 6.

The center took the daughter into protective custody on Feb. 9 and reported the incident to police.

The daughter was quoted by police as saying, “My mom made me take a strange pink medicine” and “Mom told me, ‘Don’t eat.’”

Police arrested Nawata three times between March and June on suspicion of inflicting bodily harm by putting her daughter into a hypoglycemic state or forcing her to take unnecessary laxatives.

The Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office has indicted her on charges of inflicting bodily harm.

When investigators searched Nawata’s mobile phone, they found emails in which the suspect was planning a spa outing and trip with an acquaintance and a partner after her daughter’s hospitalization, according to police.

Police suspect that she used mutual aid and other money for recreational purposes.

The Daito city government said it received two anonymous reports of suspected abuse among Nawata’s family in October last year.

Following the reports, the city government interviewed the daughter, the mother and some neighbors, but it said, "We did not see a problem.”

(This article was written by Eriko Kai, Satoshi Tazoe and Takashi Nakajima.)

Related News