<figure id="attachment_460376" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460376" style="width: 986px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6a13b60a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/caac5709b3a75d4c2de6d3cd6482c917.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-460376" class="wp-caption-text">The suspect, Sasaki, was sent to prison on March 1. Why did he attack a 5-year-old boy?</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> 5-year-old boy seriously injured, including intracranial hemorrhage</span></h3>
<p> Shortly after 9:00 a.m. on the morning of March 1, a man appeared from the Funabashi Police Station of the Chiba Prefectural Police for inspection, tall, with short hair cropped short on the sides, and with a cool look on his face. He looked at the camera with sharp eyes, but showed no sign of being perturbed.</p>
<p> Yuichi Sasaki, 36, a self-proclaimed freelancer from Funabashi, was arrested on February 28 on suspicion of assaulting and injuring a 5-year-old boy in Chuo-ku, Tokyo.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Sasaki is suspected of assaulting the boy at a Funabashi sports park between 3:00 and 5:30 p.m. on February 27, hitting him on the cheek and throwing him to the ground, causing intracranial hemorrhaging and other injuries. The boy was unconscious and in critical condition when he was transported to the hospital.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The suspect called 119, and the fire department responded to the call and reported that the boy had bruises on both cheeks and was breathing but unconscious. There is a possibility that he may have been the victim of an assault.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The suspect, an acquaintance of the boy&#8217;s mother, was taking care of the boy alone at the time of the incident. He told the investigators, &#8216;I was training like sumo and judo, and I got injured. I think it was an accident.</span></p>
<p> Although the relationship between Sasaki and the boy&#8217;s mother is described only as that of &#8220;acquaintance,&#8221; Sasaki must have been trusted to a certain extent, since she left her young child in his care all by herself. But what kind of &#8220;training&#8221; was she doing with a 5-year-old boy, and for what purpose?</p>
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<p> In the past, there have been many cases in which a mother&#8217;s boyfriend or acquaintance has violently attacked her child, resulting in the worst possible outcome.</p>
<p> In January 2010, a 5-year-old girl died after being taken to a hospital in Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture. The girl had been wrapped in a futon until just before she was taken to the hospital. It was also revealed that the mother (34 at the time) and her boyfriend (38 at the time) had abused the girl by beating her and not feeding her on a daily basis under the guise of discipline. The boyfriend was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the crime of arrest and confinement and death, and the mother was sentenced to 10 years in prison, although she denied some of the charges, saying that she <span class="strongInContent">did not take the initiative in doing so.</span></p>
<p> In the case of the death of a 5-year-old girl in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, in March 2006, her parents, who had been abusing the girl by not feeding her and leaving her on a balcony, were arrested and charged with neglect of a child under protective care. The girl was her mother&#8217;s stepdaughter and was not related to her father.</p>
<p> In this case, the &#8220;letter of remorse&#8221; that the girl had written in her college notebook, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Please forgive me, please forgive me,&#8221;</span> was also found, which brought tears to many people&#8217;s eyes. The father was sentenced to 13 years in prison and the mother to 8 years.</p>
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<p> A writer who specializes in children&#8217;s issues points out the following about cases in which a mother&#8217;s acquaintance or boyfriend commits violence against her children: &#8220;These cases are not the only cases of child abuse.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> A writer who specializes in children&#8217;s issues points out, &#8220;These cases are not uncommon in the field of child abuse. Overseas studies call it &#8216;mother-boyfriend risk&#8217; and point out that the risk of violence against children increases when a man who is not related to the child enters the home.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> However, in this case, the relationship between the mother and the suspect is not clear, and it is possible that this is an &#8220;assault-type&#8221; case in which violence developed out of sudden trouble, rather than a case of continuous abuse. In any case, the risk of violence occurring in situations where adults are temporarily taking care of children cannot be underestimated.</span></p>
<p> We must not allow adults to abuse helpless children with violence.</p>

<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;horrifying true face&quot; of the violent man who seriously injured a 5-year-old boy."></div>
<figure id="attachment_460375" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460375" style="width: 981px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="88f12fe8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/5a2a8bcacada356f7d790aa277775b9a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-460375" class="wp-caption-text">At the time of the incident, the boy was in the care of his mother, an acquaintance.</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_460377" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460377" style="width: 981px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="abc3fe2d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/6acbfb5195f15ecca32eafa218c0d7f8.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-460377" class="wp-caption-text"> She stated that she had been training the boy and that she thought it was an accident.</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_460378" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460378" style="width: 814px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="23e0bcb5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/8c111e9cfe3d7da895bfa45413fd52ee.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-460378" class="wp-caption-text"> The boy was unconscious and in critical condition when he was brought to the hospital.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_460380" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460380" style="width: 1952px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e78de7cc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/9137b5d086a8a0f71be45e5013e979f4-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-460380" class="wp-caption-text"> He was walking without changing his expression at all when he looked at the camera</figcaption></figure>


 Shinji Hasuo

 A man was arrested on suspicion of assault after he punched and threw a boy in his care on February 28, seriously injuring him. The man was an acquaintance of the boy's mother. Experts had pointed out the danger of mothers' boyfriends and acquaintances being violent toward their children.

A mother’s acquaintance” who beat and threw a 5-year-old boy unconscious… “Composition” of the violence.

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