the Mother and children
I hope the mother ended up in jail and the children sent to foster care or what social services Japan might have for NEGALECTED children !
shareCheck out Wikipedia for a summary of the case.
If I recall correctly, the mother turned herself in after the all the media attention. She admitted leaving the kids alone for 9 months, got charged with child abandonment and served only 3 years in jail with 4 years of probation! Then after she got out she actually regained custody of the 2 youngest kids! I cannot believe she got off so lightly.
I read that story on wiki. It's really sad. Much more brutal than the actual movie.
shareI wish that they had an update on how those kids turned out. It was over ten years ago...
shareActually over 20 years ago, this happened in 1988. The children's names were never released because...well, they were children. The normal "names withheld to protect the innocent" issue. It would take some investigative digging, or for the children to come forward of their own accord to get an update.
While posting this I realized how ironic me replying to this thread is considering my signature. Sorry.
"Oh, I thought you wanted us to murder the children and harvest their organs for beer money"
The concept of Honour seems to extend well beyond family life or corporate culture in Japan. Like in these hikikomori cases (youth who lock themselves in their room and spend all of their time in Internet), first it is that parents try to protect their honour and call teacher that their child is sick/depressed whatever and do nothing to get help or encourage their child to return to normal life. But after that, when the authorities get worried, they do nothing to help these parents or their children because in some way, this phenomenon is an insult to the Japanese society as a whole and it is a failure of the whole community.
It is same with these child abandonment cases (this wasn't the only one). Authorities and fellow citizens won't get involved because it undermines the Honour of the whole society. You know, "such things can't happen in our virtuous country" and if they happen, they threaten the very foundations of Japan.
This, I believe, is the reason why she got out so easily.