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Frequencies of Child Abuse in Japan: Hidden but Prevalent Crime

Department of Sociocultural Environmental Research, National Institute of Mental Health, National Centre of Neurology and Psychiatry, 1-7-3, Kohnodai, Ichikawa, Chiba 272-8790, Japan

Nobuhiko Kijima

Department of Vocational Assessment and Counseling Research, National Institute of Vocational Rehabilitation, 3-1-3 Wakaba, Mihama-Ku, Chiba 261-0014, Japan

Noboru Iwata

Centre for Research in Behavioural Medicine and Health Psychology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue/BEH 339, Tampa, Florida 33620-8200, USA

Yukiko Senda

Department of International Research and Cooperation, National Institute of Population and Social Security, 1-2-3 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Koji Takahashi

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mie University, 1515 Kamihama-cho, Tsu, Mie, Japan

Ikue Hayashi

International Centre, Dokkyo University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Soka-shi, Saitama, Japan

A total of 98 women newly employed by a company in Tokyo were interviewed and asked to recall the frequency of abuse they experiences as children. If the abuse is defined as an act occurring at least several times a month, the rates of the fathers’emotional neglect, threat, shaming the children, slapping, punching with a fist, kicking, hitting with an object, and burning were 5%, 3%, 1%, 4%, 3%, 0%, 0%, and 0%, respectively, whereas the corresponding rates of the mothers’ acts were 9%, 5%, 2%, 0%, 1%, 0%, 1%, and 0%, respectively. None of the children who had been abused at least several times a month reported having sought other people’s help. This study suggests that child abuse in Japan is no less prevalent than in the Western countries and that most abuse cases are unidentified and therefore go unrelieved by intervention.

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 43, No. 1, 21-33 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X99431003


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