All it took was a tad of reluctance from a little second grader to attend more nighttime classes after a hard day at school to turn an apparently ideal mother into a demon who killed with her bare hands, according to Friday (4/30).

Chiaki Onodera, a 37-year-old housewife widely held in high esteem for her apparently superior parenting skills, was arrested for the murder of her 7-year-old son, Josuke, allegedly strangling him because he refused to attend cram school.

"Just before it happened, we met Chiaki, who was walking around with Josuke and his elder sister. They'd just been playing down near the Tama River. I can't believe how a family that appeared to be so close could've been caught up in an incident like this," a neighbor of the Onoderas tells Friday.

Onodera's arrest came on April 6 after she called the police and admitted to throttling her son with her bare hands and a belt in their Kawasaki home. Josuke's sister, also an elementary school pupil, was apparently in the room next door playing a video game as her mother purportedly killed the baby of the Onodera family.

Japan is in the grip of a wave of child abuse cases, the Onodera killing being just one of the latest examples. However, few expected Chiaki Onodera to fall into the trap of taking out her frustrations on her children, especially as those who knew her lauded her for the way she handled kids.

"About a year ago, Josuke and my kid were playing in a park. I took my eyes off them for a second and, when I looked up again, my boy had fallen over. Onodera-san was there in an instant, helping out with my boy's cuts," a neighbor tells Friday. "The idea that somebody who was so nice to kids could have become embroiled in child abuse is almost unthinkable."

Perhaps not, as a parent of another of Josuke's classmates attests.

"It only happened sometimes, but I would see her and think she was suffering from some sort of mental illness," a housewife says. "Just the other day, we had a parent teacher meeting. Onodera-san didn't say a word, just standing there alone with a blank face and staring into the distance. She was always the quiet type, though, and I didn't think she had anything worrying her that much."

But there were signs Onodera was about to crack, such as her refusal to attend a party celebrating the marriage of Josuke's kindergarten teacher on the day before the killing.

Relatives also knew she was under strain.

"Chiaki really did adore Josuke," one family member tells Friday. "But, once he started going to school, I wouldn't say he became rebellious, but he wouldn't do as he was told and she had been worried sick by that."

April 20, 2004

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From mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/archive/news/2004/04/20040420p2g00m0dm999000c.html