The death of a 3-year-old girl suspected of being left by her mother for over a week to starve in their Tokyo apartment could have been prevented had local authorities been more vigilant in doing their jobs.

That's the view of renowned education critic Naoki Ogi, who told Kyodo News in a telephone interview that it should have raised alarm bells when Saki Kakehashi's daughter Noa missed a scheduled health examination in Tokyo's Ota Ward mandated by law.

"The ward office says it called several times and made an effort to establish contact but couldn't reach the mother. This was the biggest failing," said Ogi. "A girl missing the exam for 3-year-olds raises suspicions of abuse or neglect. The ward has to confirm the safety of the child," he said.

The 24-year-old Kakehashi, who divorced Noa's father shortly after giving birth in 2016, was arrested last week and later sent to prosecutors on suspicion of leaving Noa on her own at their apartment for eight days in early June. Kakehashi was visiting her boyfriend in Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan at the time, according to police.

According to a woman who works at a convenience store near the suspect's apartment, the single mother would drop by with her daughter almost daily up until last summer.

She would sometimes spend more than half an hour chatting with employees and affectionately referred to her daughter as "Nontan" -- recognizable to many Japanese as the lovable character from an anime series -- while pampering her with affection.

Kakehashi's apartment is directly adjacent to a bustling street near JR East's Kamata Station, and most of the neighbors had no idea Noa was in the first-floor apartment, let alone by herself. "I was staying home due to the (coronavirus pandemic) but I never heard a sound," said one neighbor. "I have a child myself but I never noticed anything," another said.

But Kakehashi, who was arrested on suspicion of negligence as a guardian resulting in death, has admitted to police that she found parenting her daughter a growing burden.

The convenience store clerk said that Kakehashi stopped visiting the store together with her daughter around last summer but had begun coming on her own more recently.

According to investigators, Kakehashi was abused herself as a child, and her own mother had been arrested on suspicion of bodily injury and abandonment by a guardian in September 2003.

Police said Kakehashi, who was only 8 at the time, was beaten and tied up with a rope in her home in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture. After the incident, she lived in a foster home in Miyazaki until graduating from high school and moving to Tokyo.

After Kakehashi's arrest, Ogi wrote on his official blog that the case was a typical example of neglect. But instead of blaming the mother, he urges local governments to work hand in hand with child welfare centers and local police to ensure child care safety.

"No matter how much we criticize the mother or punish her, the infant girl will not come back to life," Ogi, a former professor at Hosei University, wrote. "Everyone needs to think about why this wasn't preventable and what we can do, so such cases aren't repeated."

Investigative sources quoted Kakehashi as saying she barricaded Noa inside the living room with a sofa blocking off a sliding partition to the kitchen to prevent her from potentially harming herself with knives or other items. Police suspect the girl was confined to the living room for eight days.

When paramedics arrived and found Noa unresponsive after receiving a call from Kakehashi following her return from her trip on June 13, they found large amounts of garbage scattered about the apartment, including empty bread bags and plastic bottles.

Kakehashi is suspected of trying to hide the fact that Noa had been left alone by applying ointment to a rash on her bottom and changing her into a fresh diaper before making the emergency call approximately one hour after arriving home.

She also deleted messages and photos she exchanged with her boyfriend on her cellphone before placing the call, in which she said her daughter was not breathing.

Kakehashi told investigators she left tea and many treats for her daughter in the room, but autopsy results revealed Noa died from severe dehydration and hunger, police said. She was 3 kilograms under the standard weight for children of her age, and her stomach was almost empty.

File photo of Naoki Ogi. (Kyodo)

The rash on her bottom was apparently the result of her diaper not having been changed for a prolonged period, the sources said.

During voluntary questioning before her arrest, Kakehashi initially claimed that Noa had become ill and that she was caring for her at home because she had no money to take her to a hospital, but police believe she had fabricated the story.

Kakehashi, who worked at a Japanese-style "izakaya" pub, often left Noa home alone so that she could frequent pachinko parlors and bars with friends, and visited Kagoshima on her own for three days in May as well, the sources said.

Investigators told Kyodo that Kakehashi had not taken her daughter outside for nearly a month and a half. The last time Noa was seen in camera surveillance footage was at the beginning of May, although they suspect her mother went out and routinely left the child alone in the apartment during this period.

An Ota Ward official visited their home on May 11, out of concern that Kakehashi had not brought Noa for her scheduled checkup, but there was no answer. It appears the date coincided with when Kakehashi was away visiting her boyfriend in Kagoshima.

Ogi said this is where the ward needed to take further aggressive action to reinforce the "social care system," including following a prescribed manual and coordinating with child welfare centers and local police to ensure child care safety.

"The ward can say we weren't able to reach her, and that's the end of it as far as their administrative job is concerned, but this is extremely irresponsible. They need to carry out an independent investigation into why this happened," he said.

Kakehashi also routinely posted images on Instagram enjoying herself with friends at parties and doing other activities, such as snowboarding and karaoke. But among more than 200 public images posted, Noa is nowhere to be found.

However, up until several months before her arrest, she also posted photos of herself smiling and showing a tenderness for her daughter under a locked account for close friends. "They looked like they were having so much fun. I really think she loved her child," said one friend.

According to a report by the National Police Agency, police launched 1,972 child abuse investigations involving a record 1,991 minors under 18 last year.

A stark upward trend is apparent from 2003 when there were just 212 incidents and 241 victims, respectively -- with 9.3 times the number of incidents and 8.2 times the number of victims last year.

Of the victims last year, 54 died, including 10-year-old Mia Kurihara in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, whose case attracted attention due to problems uncovered in the way a child welfare center, her school, and other local authorities responded to Mia's repeated calls for help.

Last June, a revised law was enacted banning parents and other guardians from physically punishing children following several fatal abuse cases. Another law was also amended to strengthen the ability of child welfare centers to intervene in abuse cases.

Most of the revised laws' contents came into effect in April, as calls for drastic measures had intensified following several deaths of children at their homes.

If, as the adage goes, it takes a village to raise a child, Noa appeared to lack the essential community support to grow in a safe and healthy environment.

Ogi says the biggest problem was Noa's isolation from society, while Kakehashi, a young, single mother, appeared to have "little experience being loved herself," he wrote.

"Human beings, just like a cat or a sparrow, instinctively take great care of their children. Affection is instinctive to living creatures. But specifically in the case of humans, there needs to be a certain level of knowledge or skill to raise a child. She (Kakehashi) did not have that. Raising a child is not something parents do alone but is a social, human activity," he told Kyodo.

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