Candy, toys and other items are seen left outside the apartment where Orito Niimura, 3, died, in the city of Settsu, Osaka Prefecture, on Sept. 23, 2021. A female resident who brought a Mainichi Shimbun reporter to the scene wept as she brought their hands together in prayer, and said, "He must have wanted to play more." (Mainichi/Yusuke Kori)

       OSAKA -- It is highly likely that a 3-year-old boy who died in an apartment in the west Japan city of Settsu in August was restrained and directly exposed to extremely hot water for nearly 10 minutes, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

       Orito Niimura's body exhibited signs of heavy scalding across a wide area, though an autopsy showed no indication that he tried to avoid the hot water. Prefectural police arrested his mother's partner, 23-year-old Takumi Matsubara, on suspicion of murder, and are investigating him under the view he may have used some method to hold down Orito and stop him moving

       Matsubara stands accused of murdering Orito on Aug. 31 by dousing him in hot water at the fifth-floor apartment where he was living with the 3-year-old boy and his mother. It is suspected that he continually exposed Orito to a hot shower inside the apartment's bathroom.

       Matsubara has denied the allegations, and was quoted as telling police, "I did not intentionally cover him in hot water." Before his arrest, he reportedly gave investigators explanations including, "I was playing and gradually raising the (water) temperature to see how (Orito) would react if I kept the hot shower running."

       Suspect Takumi Matsubara leaves Settsu Police Station in Osaka Prefecture to be referred to public prosecutors, on the morning of Sept. 24, 2021. (Mainichi/Ryoichi Mochizuki)

       According to Osaka Prefectural Police's first investigation division, the results of the judicial autopsy on Orito's corpse showed extensive scalding across his body, and inflammation of the skin primarily on the top half of his body. His cause of death was deemed to be burn shock due to heavy burns. The boy was highly likely to have been continuously and directly exposed to scalding water for close to 10 minutes.

       However, no marks indicating burns from exposure to hot water were found on Matsubara. The apartment where the alleged murder took place has a water heater panel in the kitchen, which can be used to adjust the water temperature to between 37 degrees Celsius and 75 C. Prefectural police say it is possible that Matsubara kept Orito's body restrained in some way, and then continued to expose the boy to the hot water while ensuring his own safety.

       Acquaintances of Orito's mother and others have reportedly said that in the days after the incident, Matsubara told people that he had raised the shower temperature from 38 C up to, lastly, 60 C. He then reportedly said that he went for a smoke in the living room, and that Orito had lost consciousness after that.

       On the morning of Sept. 24, Osaka Prefectural Police referred Matsubara to prosecutors on suspicion of murder.

       (Japanese original by Yasumoto Kumiko and Yusuke Kori, Osaka City News Department)

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