In Japan, there is a lot of black news about young mothers abusing children or secretly giving birth to their children and then killing them.
In 2019, a 24-year-old Japanese woman left the baby girl in the toilet seat of a convenience store in Niiza City after giving birth to a baby girl.
In 2021, a woman in Aichi Prefecture gave birth to a baby in a toilet in a park and left it to fend for herself.
In August 2023, 34-year-old Nanami Koseki gave birth to a baby in the internal toilet of the restaurant where she worked, and left the baby in the toilet to die.
This seemingly unrelated tragedy after tragedy has a strikingly similar fate behind it.
Most of these young girls, who are in their teens or early 2 or early 30s, live at the bottom of Japanese society. The unhappiness and poverty of the original family caused them to either be abandoned by their boyfriends after pregnancy, or because of the chaotic relationship, they did not know who the father of the child was.
Therefore, even after pregnancy, it is impossible to go to the hospital for normal prenatal checkups, and it is not possible to give birth to a child and raise it alone. They can only quietly give birth to the child and strangle it, and finally wait for the severe punishment of the law.
On the one hand, there is the growing severity of a society with a declining birthrate, and on the other hand, innocent children are stifled at birth. Faced with such an extreme predicament, in September 2022, Japan published guidelines on confidential childbirth.
The so-called secret childbirth refers to a system that allows women in various situations, such as unplanned pregnancies, to give birth without revealing their identity.
Confidential births in hospitals can prevent unsafe births at home and elsewhere and prevent incidents of abandonment of babies due to inability to raise them.
Japan's first and currently the only secret maternity hospital is Jikei Hospital located in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture.
As early as 15 years ago, Cihui Hospital became famous throughout the country for setting up a so-called "baby station". Mothers who are born but cannot afford to raise their children can send their children here. This is the first of its kind in Japan and aims to prevent babies born as a result of unwanted pregnancies or other causes from being at risk of death.
Over the years, after a steady stream of cases of mothers arrested for abandonment or murder in Japan, Jikei Hospital introduced Germany's "secret delivery" as a further preventative measure.
Makoto Hasuda, the head of the neonatal consultation room at Jikei Hospital, said, "There was once a teenager who brought a baby born at home to the baby station. The girl was abused at home, and no one knew what they would do to her if the family found out that she had given birth. Because she was still a minor, she had to get her parents' consent to have an abortion, so she couldn't do that either, and she knew that if she went to the doctor, the doctor would contact her parents, so she gave birth to the baby herself, and took the baby to the baby station, where she said 'I'm scared'. I don't want other people to feel that way. ”
This incident made Hasuda realize that if a "secret childbirth" system is not established, there will be people who are as helpless and scared as girls.
In December 2021, a girl in her teens, Azi, applied for a "confidential delivery" to Cihui Hospital for the first time.
In an email to Jihui Hospital, Azi wrote, "Please help me!"
Tzu Hui Hospital will provide all free childbirth assistance to women who are eligible to apply for "confidential delivery" with absolute confidentiality.
Just a few days before A's due date, she suddenly contacted the hospital and said that she had a stomachache and was bleeding. She was also on the train that rushed to Kumamoto.
Fearing that she would give birth to her child on the train, the directors of Jihui Hospital, Ken Hasuda and Makoto Hasuda, also hurriedly left for Hakata to meet Ako.
According to Azi, she has been abused by her mother since she was a child, and her boyfriend often abused her.
Makoto Hasuda said that although they had never met, they recognized Ako at a glance when they arrived at Hakata Station, not because Ako had a big belly, but because Ako looked very uneasy and helpless in the crowd.
After confirming the child's fetal movements, the group boarded the Shinkansen back to Kumamoto, while Ako had been crying since they met.
And when Azi was asked why she was crying, she said that she was very worried that the baby would die because she was bleeding.
After arriving at the hospital, Son A began to have labor pains, and then gave birth to the child anonymously.
After the child was born, Azi looked at the child and kept repeating, "I'm sorry, you must be happy!"
Makoto Hasuda has been persuading Ako to give up anonymity, because if she is anonymous, the connection between the child and her will disappear in the future.
If you are anonymous, even if A wants to look for the child in the future, and the child says that I am your mother, there will be no proof.
And Azi said, "I can endure, and I am Xi to patience." But I don't want the baby to have a bad time. ”
In Germany, there is a document called a "birth certificate" for confidential childbirth, in which you can leave something that can prove the identity of the mother.
What Ako provided to the hospital was a copy of her health insurance card and a student ID with a photo. And this became the identity credential of the first child born in secret.
After leaving the hospital, Azi left a letter to the baby that she wanted the child to open again when he was 18 years old.
On the day Azi left, the child cried. It was also the second time he had cried since he was born.
A Zi said, although I gave birth to him irresponsibly and abandoned him irresponsibly, I still cherish this child and hope that he can live well.
From 2014, when Japan began to recognize the legalization of secret childbirth, to 2022, more than 900 children have been born in secret, and about 4,000 women have come to Jihui Hospital for consultation on secret childbirth in the past few years.
These abandoned children, although they do not have birth certificates, take the form of "children have a separate household registration". Babies are temporarily cared for at the Child Guidance Center. After that, they will be entrusted to a baby home, where they will take measures such as special adoptions.
Currently, there are 50 dedicated "Pregnancy SOS" consultation desks across Japan to help women who are having difficulties or are helpless during pregnancy, but this is not enough.
Mr. Yang Jiang said that women who have survived the trough period will become more and more indifferent, because no one knows how helpless and broken the road she has walked is, and no one cares about this process.
Of course, every child born is also innocent, and every child deserves to be blessed and loved in this world. The misfortune of underage girls should not be extended to the next generation, and both the family and society have certain responsibilities. And as a party, you may also be responsible for your own actions.