Delicious rice with furikake or “topping”.
The news that a mother had attacked her eldest daughter with a knife in a family row over “furikake”, or “rice toppings” has shocked netizens.
Police are now investigating whether there is the possibility that there has been systematic child abuse within the family, and have arrested the mother for attempted murder despite the fact that her child only sustained a small cut to her right palm.
Netizens think that when people start drawing knives over rice-toppings, the parent-child relationship might well be irreparable.
From Sankei Shimbun:
“Why Are You Putting Sprinkles On Your Rice!” Family Argument Ends In Mother Being Arrested For Injuring Daughter With Kitchen Knife
On August 9 Kawachinagano Police arrested an unemployed woman (35) of Chiyodadaicho, Kawachinagano, Osaka for attempted murder after she threatened and injured her eldest daughter (15) with a knife following a family argument over rice toppings. The woman denies the charges, saying “I only picked up the knife, I didn’t intend to murder her”.
According to police, during the meal the woman angered her eldest daughter by saying “Come on, there’s no need to put all that topping on your rice is there?”prompting an argument between the two. The woman then took a knife from the kitchen. The woman made the emergency 110 call herself, and told operators “We’re having a family argument”. The officers who rushed to the scene are said to have restrained the woman.
The woman was arrested on August 9 at around 3:50pm, for having injured her eldest daughter’s right hand with a knife in the family home.
Between March and June this year, the woman had thrown things at both her eldest daughter and her eldest son, who is in the third year of middle school, and had also pulled their hair. Police had reported the woman three times to the Tondabayashi Child and Family Center (a child consultation center) given that there was the possibility of child abuse.
Comments from Yahoo! Japan:
前田恒彦: 元特捜部主任検事 [Former Chief Prosecutor For Special Investigations Division]
The woman has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder, but there are also reports that “The eldest daughter charged at the woman so she took a knife from the kitchen” and “When the eldest daughter tried to take the knife from her mother she managed to cut the palm of her right hand”. Therefore, when the prosecutor’s office comes to deal with this, I would imagine this will be recognized as a crime relating to inflicting bodily injury, rather than attempted murder. (The mother called 110 herself, and it seems that there is also a high possibility that she will see off any indictment).
But actually, that is not the key point in this incident. From the fact that the mother seems to have a habit of abusing her eldest daughter and eldest son, who live with her, as well as being temporarily confined and being forced apart from her children, rapid measure will be taken to protect the safety of the children, co-ordinated via child consultation centers, schools, and the local area, as set out in child welfare law.
bis*****:
The woman is sick, right? Wasn’t she able to suppress feelings of hate no matter what her children did?
nat*****:
If you’re arguing over rice toppings then I think that she must have been bearing a lot of resentment for some time.
reg*****:
These days it seems like there is a lot of pointless news.
Or is it just me?
hid*****:
Kinda seems like if a knife is appearing in a family argument that the parent-child relationship had collapsed before all the stuff over the rice topping…
もう夏休みですね:
What else would you use a rice topping for other than putting it on rice? What’s the problem?
orp*****:
You really do get toxic parents.
This incident was reported after it came before the police, but it seems to me that in this world there are even more horrible incidents that stay hidden.
日本は世界にたった一つ:
We don’t know if the mother just has a short temper or if the daughter went too far in what she was saying, but this argument has gone past a simple family argument.
solomonkotaro:
I thought this was a joke or something…but I guess it’s almost impossible to repair this parent-child relationship.
U・x・U:
If there are 30,000 murderers, then there must be ten or a hundred times more people who are mentally ill. Recently this has become more and more notable.
jun*****:
Frankly this is a pathetic incident, but doesn’t the mother have some issues?
I don’t suppose that even the child consultation center thought that things could escalate like that over a rice topping, but was there anything they could have done to stop it?
Comments from Twitter:
内藤可夫:
And who was it that bought the toppings and why did they buy them!
塩蔵:
At first I thought it was the kid who had been violent, but actually it was child abuse. I wish people were able to not let what their kids do get to them like that.
段ボールの中の猫☆FANKS:
Hmmm, well, in that case don’t buy toppings and put them on the dinner table…seems like there are a lot of parents these days who think it’s bad to give them to kids…
s.t.fake@三日目東E-43a:
You’re supposed to put the topping on the rice, that’s what it’s for… give me a fucking break!!!!!!!!
あばろか:
A third person can never know what really happened. You know, even dirt can make a mountain, so I guess the rice topping was the last straw that made her blow up.
HIRO:
What’s the problem with using rice toppings? w
(oﾟc_ﾟo):
Man, imagine how much worse things would have been if she’d been trying to put a rice topping on some noodles. Rice topping…
バタ子（ 羽汰莉闇菜）ﾊﾞﾀﾘ.ｱﾝﾅ:
“‘Why Are You Putting Sprinkles On Your Rice!’ Family Argument Ends In Mother Being Arrested For Injuring Daughter With Kitchen Knife” And so now we live in an era where the police are making arrests over this kind of thing, huh?
あき:
Come on, let the girl at least put toppings on her rice…
鶴中貴彦 – 深謀遠慮:
You risk your life every mealtime.
