Japan Mother Abandons Kids for 10 Days, One Dies

´She told us she had become neurotic from raising her children,´ the police spokesman said.

A Japanese mother who told police she was stressed from childcare was arrested after leaving her three children, all aged under six, alone in their house for 10 days. One of the children died.

Megumi Shimamura, 29, had apparently moved house and left the children alone in their old residence, a police spokesman in Saitama, just north of Tokyo, told Reuters on Saturday.

Shimamura, a divorcee, called her parents and asked them to check on the children on Friday, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said in a separate report.

When they did, they found the body of her two-year-old son, Kenta, lying on a quilt. Kenta's twin sister, weakened from hunger, was taken to hospital. Their 6-year-old brother was unharmed.

"She told us she had become neurotic from raising her children," the police spokesman added.