The Tokyo District Court sentenced wheelchair influencer Satsuki Naito, 29, to eight years in prison on Nov. 13 for killing her three-month-old daughter Yua with a knife, a term two years short of the 10 years prosecutors sought.
Presiding Judge Shoji Miyata found the attack, which left 67 wounds on the infant's body, was carried out with strong intent to kill, Shueisha Online reported.
Moments after the court closed, Naito began shouting from the witness stand. "Why isn't it the death penalty?" she cried, according to the outlet.
A courtroom packed hours before the session
At the Nov. 5 session where prosecutors demanded 10 years, Naito said in her final statement, her voice shaking, that she would live her life for Yua.
Eight days later, people hoping for a seat began lining up before 9 a.m. for a hearing set to open at 3 p.m. The line stretched to the end of the corridor, and nearly 70 people had gathered by the time court opened.
Naito entered in a wheelchair, her hair tied back, wearing a black sweater, white shirt and black trousers. She looked toward the gallery and at times stared into the distance with the corners of her mouth raised.
The killing and the trial
In November 2025, Naito killed Yua in the bathroom of her home in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, slashing the baby with a knife. She called police herself the next morning.
At her first hearing she said she had thought there was no way to stay with her daughter except to die together. Her marriage had deteriorated, and a divorce raised the prospect that she would lose custody.
The court acknowledged that her then-husband's failure to give her enough help with child-rearing had some influence on the crime. It called her motive selfish and short-sighted, driven by putting her own feelings first.
Before the killing she searched her smartphone for terms including "murder, baby, prison term." She had told her former husband she wanted to spend time alone with Yua.
Once alone with the baby, she used a knife with a blade about 16.4 centimeters long, inflicting 67 wounds, mainly to the neck and back. Yua died of hemorrhagic shock from a severed carotid artery.
After the killing, Naito left false entries in a child-care record app she shared with her former husband.
The defense argued she had prepared the knife to hurt herself. It said that with her consciousness clouded by medication, she may have mistaken her daughter for her own body.
The court found she had little awareness of cutting her daughter because of the drugs. It nonetheless concluded she swung the knife deliberately, noting Yua's face was uninjured.
The ruling called the loss of a life full of hope for the future immeasurably grave, and said Yua, unable to speak, had felt pain and suffering.
“The result is, needless to say, serious.”the court, ruling
Naito did not call police immediately after the killing, posting a message to followers on social media instead. Her surrender was recognized because she called 110 herself the next morning.
During a psychiatric evaluation after her arrest, she tried to kill herself and said she wanted to see Yua. She also said she should have died with her daughter.
A social worker drew up a rehabilitation support plan covering how to respond if she falls into a psychological crisis. The ruling expressed hope that a continuous support system would let her live stably on her own.
In her final statement Naito apologized to her former husband, saying she was sorry for causing him grief and would spend her life atoning.
Her remorse and surrender were taken into account in the two-year reduction from the prosecution's demand.
Screams that carried into the corridor
During the reading of the verdict, Naito kept her face turned calmly toward the judge. As the ruling neared its end, she looked around the room without changing expression.
The outburst came right after the judge declared the court closed and everyone bowed. Equipment near the stand toppled toward her as she appeared to reach for the microphone.
She began screaming that she wanted to die. When the judge told her to calm down, she shouted over him, asking why the sentence was not death and how many people she would have to kill to get it.
She kept shouting as the judge urged spectators to leave, saying the death penalty was what she deserved and that the sentence was too lenient. Two staff members held her down.
Even after she was removed, screams of "the death penalty is what I want" and other cries leaked into the corridor for about 10 minutes, the outlet reported.
In its closing argument, the defense had said Naito had the will to live carrying Yua's life with her. The words that came from her immediately after the ruling were repeated calls for her own execution.