Flowers and snacks are seen offered at a park where a 6-year-old girl was found collapsed, in this photo take in the city of Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, on Aug. 24, 2021. (Mainichi/Kengo Suga)

       OTSU -- A 6-year-old girl recently died after being abused by her 17-year-old brother who had apparently been a "young carer" looking after his sister instead of his mother who tended to be absent in the poor family.

       "My sister fell from a jungle gym," said the boy after he rushed to a private house near the park in the city of Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, for help on the morning of Aug. 1. According to the resident, he saw the girl collapsed in the park and heard the boy muttering: "Can they save her? Will I be blamed?" The girl was later confirmed dead at a hospital.

       A judicial autopsy revealed that the girl had about 100 bruises all over her body, and had several broken ribs. Shiga Prefectural Police arrested the boy on suspicion of inflicting bodily injury resulting in death by abusing his sister, such as kicking her stomach and back. According to investigators, the boy told police, "I was tired of taking care of my sister."

       The Otsu District Public Prosecutors Office referred the case to the local family court on Aug. 25 on suspicion of inflicting bodily injury resulting in death. On the same day, the family court decided to start a juvenile trial and to take protective measures until Sept. 7.

       A jungle gym, where the brother of a 6-year-old girl said she fell from, is seen in this photo taken in the city of Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, on Aug. 5, 2021. It is suspected that the brother may have lied about his sister falling from the structure. (Mainichi/Kengo Suga)

       According to the prefectural government's child consultation center, the boy had just started to live with his mother and sister in April. For financial reasons, the boy had been living at an orphanage in Kyoto Prefecture since he was in elementary school, and his sister had been entrusted to a facility in Osaka Prefecture one year after she was born.

       The child consultation center had visited the girl's elementary school on July 20, when the closing ceremony for the first semester was held, to check her attendance status. The following day, the brother and sister visited a convenience store in Otsu, and the girl was reported to the police for asking a random customer, "Can you lend me 1,000 yen (roughly $9)?" before dawn.

       When the police took her under protection, there were no noticeable injuries, but her mother was not at home, and the prefectural police notified the consultation center about suspected neglect. The consultation center was scheduled to meet the children's mother on Aug. 4. The center explained, "Because there was a 17-year-old boy, who is close to an adult, we decided that protection of the two was not very urgent."

       Sources close to the case said the family had fallen behind on rent payments for about four mouths. A neighbor in her 70s said, "The brother seemed nice to his sister, such as teaching her how to ride a skateboard."

       Flowers and snacks are seen offered at a park where a 6-year-old girl was found collapsed, in this photo take in the city of Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, on Aug. 24, 2021. (Mainichi/Kengo Suga)

       The prefectural government will hold a "child abuse case verification subcommittee" meeting consisting of lawyers and psychiatrists to verify the response the child consultation center took. The center told the Mainichi Shimbun, "We cannot provide a comment at this point, since the full scope of the matter is unclear."

       The Japanese government in April announced the results of the first fact-finding survey on young carers, or children who provide care for family members, and 5.7% of second-year public junior high school students and 4.1% of second-year full-time public high school students answered they have a family member who they are taking care of.

       Among these family members, many respondents said they were looking after their siblings. Some 10% to 20% of respondents complained they have no time for themselves and that it was mentally painful, while over 60% said they had never consulted with anyone about being a young carer.

       The child consultation center had never talked directly with the boy and his sister, and suspicions of neglect apparently only surfaced after they were notified by the prefectural police.

       (Japanese original by Kengo Suga and Misaki Morokuma, Otsu Bureau)

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