Chiyo Aizawa
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| Chiyo Aizawa | |
| Born | January 31, 1939 Tochigi Prefecture, Japan |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Known for | Murder of her father and incest victim |
| Spouse | None (her father was her common-law husband) |
| Children | Three daughters (two other daughters died as infants) |
| Parents | Takeo and Rika |
Chiyo Aizawa (相沢 チヨ[1] Aizawa Chiyo?, born January 31, 1939) was a Japanese woman who murdered her own father. Her trial, known as "Aizawa v. Japan", is famous in Japan because it led to a change in Japanese criminal law.
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[edit] Early life and murder
Born in Tochigi Prefecture, Aizawa was the first of six children. Her father was Takeo Aizawa (相沢 武雄 Aizawa Takeo?, May 3, 1915 - October 5, 1968) and her mother was Rika Aizawa (相沢 リカ Aizawa Rika?). Takeo Aizawa suffered from alcoholism and systematically raped his daughter from 1953 onwards. Rika Aizawa fled to Hokkaidō soon after, leaving Chiyo behind. She returned several years after, but by then Takeo had begun living with with his daughter, treating her as if she were his wife. Chiyo Aizawa became pregnant eleven times and had five daughters by her father, but two of them died in infancy. In 1967, she underwent sterilization after her sixth induced abortion. In 1968, she fell in love with a man and her father became angry. He confined her and said that he would kill her three children.
On October 5, 1968, Aizawa murdered her father in Yaita, Tochigi Prefecture.[2] The Japanese police then determined that her three children were sired by her father.[1] Indeed, her neighbors had thought Chiyo was her father's wife until her arrest. Because Japanese law forbids endogamy and polygyny but doesn't forbid incest, a family register recorded Aizawa's children as her father's illegitimate children.
[edit] Aizawa v. Japan
The penalty for parricide was the death penalty or life imprisonment under article 200 of the penal code.[2] Justices typically accept mitigating circumstances in such incidents; still, Aizawa would receive a stiff sentence (3 years 6 months imprisonment without suspended sentence). Her lawyer insisted that the murder was self-defense and that she had been insane due to sexual abuse. As a result, the district court in Utsunomiya suspended the first court's sentence, stating that article 200 was unconstitutional. However, the high court in Tokyo did not concur. In a final appeal, the Japanese supreme court accepted the argument that imposing a harsh penalty on Aizawa would violate the principle of human equality found in the constitution. The court ruled the article unconstitutional on April 4, 1973. Aizawa received a suspended sentence of 2 years 6 months in prison. If the court had not annulled precedents, she could not have received a suspended sentence. She was effectively acquitted, and she worked in Utsunomiya after her release.
[edit] Effect of her sentence
On April 19, 1973, the Japanese Ministry of Justice announced that Japanese murderers who had killed their parents due to extreme emotional circumstances would be granted amnesty. The article 200 of the penal code was abolished in 1995.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Hideo Tanaka and Malcolm D.H. Smith, The Japanese legal system : introductory cases and materials, 1976, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo ISBN 0860081613
- Meryll Dean, Japanese Legal System, 2002, Cavendish Publishing, London ISBN 1843143224
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Aizawa v Japan Murdoch University
- (Japanese) Seminar Constitutional Law 2005PDF (55.0 KiB)
- (Japanese) 矢板・実父殺し事件
- (Japanese) Japanese Wikipedia entry on the murder case
