This 2020 file photo shows Settsu City Hall. (Mainichi/Koji Endo)

       OSAKA -- The Settsu Municipal Government did not share information about the possible abuse of a 3-year-old boy with a child consultation center before he died this year from exposure to scalding water, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

       The boy, Orito Niimura, died after being exposed to extremely hot water in August, leading to the arrest of his mother's partner, who has been charged with murder.

       The city had obtained information from Orito's nursery school in mid-June about a bruise around his left ear, which raised suspicions of abuse, but the city did not ask the mother or child about it, and did not share the information with the local child consultation center, an interview with the center found.

       "If we had taken immediate action, there was a possibility that the judgment of the risk would have been higher," a city official commented.

       Wounds near the head are said to point to a risk of abuse, and the official's comment suggests that the city may have erred in its judgment that the situation was not urgent. This is likely to be the focus of the probe by an expert panel established by the Osaka Prefectural Government.

       According to the Settsu Municipal Government, it was informed by the nursery school on June 15 that Orito was seen with a bruise around his left ear in mid-May, and that his mother had told them she didn't know when it appeared.

       The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's guide to responding to child abuse stipulates that injuries for which the circumstances of the wound are not known pose a high risk of abuse, and information should be collected at an early stage. In particular, head and facial injuries of infants are "highly dangerous" and "unless there is information that clearly rules out the possibility abuse, it is necessary to put the child in protective custody in principle," the guide states.

       The city government, however, did not interview Orito's mother, nor did it directly check on his injuries or condition. In mid-July, the city government held a meeting with the Suita child and family center, a child consultation center in Osaka Prefecture that has the authority to provide temporary protection, but a representative of the center said, "The information was not shared in the form of records at the meeting. This is the first time we learned about the bruise around his left ear."

       The city maintains that it reported information to the child consultation center. As for the reason why it did not investigate, an official said, "We don't know because we have no records."

       Meanwhile, on Oct. 13, the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office charged Takumi Matsubara, a 24-year-old unemployed man who had been in a relationship with Orito's mother, with murder. According to investigators, Matsubara initially denied the charges, but later exercised his right to remain silent.

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

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