'Mentally Ill' Woman Freezes To Death After Being Held Captive For 15 Years

Police arrested the parents of a 33-year-old Japanese woman, who froze to death in a small room where she was confined for 15 years, Wednesday.

Yasutaka Kakimoto, 55, and Yukari Kakimoto, 53, were arrested by Western Japan’s Osaka Prefectural Police Department, after the couple confessed that they had kept their daughter, Airi Kakimoto, locked up inside a 32 square foot room and fed her once a day for more than a decade because they thought that she was mentally ill, Reuters reported.

“Our daughter was mentally ill and, from age 16 or 17, she became violent, so we kept her inside the room,” police quoted her parents as saying.

Police stated that the woman's body was found in an extreme state of malnutrition. At the time of her death, she was only 145 cm (4.76 ft) tall and weighed just 19 kg (42 lb). Although Airi’s parents discovered that their daughter had died on Dec. 18, they waited till Saturday to report her death. “We wanted to be together with our daughter,” they told the police.

The room that Airi lived was fitted with a camera and a double door that could only be unlocked from outside. It had a makeshift toilet along with a tube attached to the water tank outside.

Ten more surveillance cameras were placed outside the single-storey building where the Japanese family lived. Additionally, a six-foot-high fence surrounded the building, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. No formal charges were brought upon the parents yet. They were arrested on the suspicion of illegally disposing of a body.

Mental illness is still considered a social stigma in many parts of Japan, despite some changes in the public attitude.

According to a 2013 study by National Center for Biotechnology Information, “the majority of the general public in Japan keep a greater social distance from individuals with mental illness, especially in close personal relationships.”

Also, “weakness of personality” is often considered a form a mental illness in Japanese community, in spite of the individual not suffering from any biological issues. It has also been seen that schizophrenia is often more stigmatized than depression, and the more severe the stage of mental illness, the more stigmatized attitude the patient is subjected to.

Although stigmatization is a diminishing phenomenon in Japan, the country still has a long way to go before mental illness is no longer considered a reason to shun disabled individuals.

“Stigmatizing attitudes in Japan are stronger than in Taiwan or Australia, possibly due to institutionalism, lack of national campaigns to tackle stigma, and/or society's valuing of conformity in Japan,” the study states. “Although educational programs appear to be effective in reducing mental-health-related stigma, future programs in Japan need to address problems regarding institutionalism and offer direct social contact with people with mental illness.”